Crossover Story: When Star-Spangled Plans Meet Bombshell Chaos
by jdho2
Summary: Chapter 1 of my Crossover Story "When Star-Spangled Plans Meet Bombshell Chaos" posted here to make it easier to find. Full Story will be at /s/10564271/1/When-Star-Spangled-Plans-Meet-Bombshell-Chaos Stephanie/Steve pairing. Babe friendly. What happens when the Star Spangled Man With A Plan crosses paths with Trenton's own Bombshell Bounty Hunter?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **I'm addicted to both the Janet Evanovich/Stephanie Plum fandom as well as the Captain America/Avengers fandom. I have a story going for JE, and have been too scared to even think about touching the Marvel fanbase. Seriously, can you say intimidating? Then, the other night, I had a dream and I just couldn't put this away. I have no idea if anyone else will enjoy this pairing, but I think it might really work. I hope to make it approachable for JE fans who don't know much about Marvel and vice versa! Let me know what you think and if I should bother continuing this story!

To my followers/fans (if I may be so bold as to call you that) of my JE fanfiction. I promise, I will get more up for you soon, but I'm so blocked by this story, I just had to get it down first. As much as I am a Babe usually, this won't be a Babe. It will be Babe friendly. It will probably be somewhere in the Cupcake indifferent to mildly unfriendly range.

Marvel peeps. Okay, I've watched all of the movies several times, and Agents of Shield a couple of times. I don't know much of anything about the comics. I'm happy to correct any errors, but please be gentle?

This chapter is long. I don't expect the rest to be quite this long.

**Disclaimer: **The characters and things you recognize in this story don't belong to me. They belong to Marvel and Janet Evanovich. I'm pretty sure you'll recognize which is which. Mistakes belong to me.

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**Reminder: This is a repost!**This story will live at s/10564271/1/When-Star-Spangled-Plans-Meet-Bombshell-Chaos so please go there and follow that story if you're interested in reading more!

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Chapter 1

_**Steph's POV**_

My name is Stephanie Plum, aka The Bombshell Bounty Hunter of Trenton, NJ. I know what you're thinking, "she calls herself a bombshell? What's up with that? She must be one stuck up lady." But let me make myself clear, it is not a nickname I chose and it is one that I fought tooth and nail through the years. After all this time, however, I've resigned myself to it.

I do work as a bounty hunter for my disgusting, pervert of a cousin, Vinnie. So that part of the name I don't mind. The "Bombshell," on the other hand, isn't "Bombshell" in the good way. I wish it was, but let's face it, at 5'7" and 130 pounds on a good day with crazy, untamable brunette curls, supermodel I am not. Most days I can button my jeans if I haven't had too many doughnuts, but still.

Nope, I get the nickname "Bombshell" from the fact that things like to explode around me. Cars, apartments, laundromats, funeral homes, you name it, there's a good chance it has been hit by a "bomb" or a "shell" or caught on fire and then exploded in my general vicinity. A couple years ago, a local reporter gave me the nickname and there's been no going back. Trust me, I've tried.

At least I've managed to ditch my other nicknames for the most part. My ex-boyfriend, Joe Morelli, always called me "Cupcake" and I hated it. We broke up several months ago, ending a multi-year on/off relationship. I'd say it was mutual, but that'd be a lie. I broke up with him, and he assumed we were going to be getting back together. The longer we went without that happening, and the more times I told him it would never happen, the more hostile he got.

Then there's "Babe". That nickname belongs to my mentor and former… lover (for lack of a better term or ever really having had a clearly defined relationship), Ranger Manoso. I suppose he still calls me "Babe" more often than not, but out of respect for my wishes, I know he's trying to switch to "Steph". Who knows if he'll ever make it there.

That relationship ended amicably. When Joe and I ended things, Ranger and I had a talk. He still wasn't willing to be in a relationship and I wasn't willing to be fuck buddies, so we decided to just be friends. It hurt for a few weeks, but I'll always treasure his friendship over anything else, including my pride, so we've made it work. No more stolen kisses in alleys or wherever, and definitely no more sex.

Ranger owns a security company, Rangeman, and has finally worn me down over the years to the point where I now work mostly for him, picking up skips for Rangeman, and only covering low bonds with my friend Lula on weekends/days off for Vinnie and Plum Bail Bonds. The hope is for me to hand those fully over to Lula within the next few weeks, and then I can go back to having free time on the weekends and I'll work full time for Ranger.

I've trained with Ranger and some of his "Merry Men". That's my nickname for his employees who are kind of big brothers to me. They freaked out when they first learned that I called them that, but if they won't stop calling me "Bombshell" or "Bomber" then I won't stop calling them my "Merry Men". I can now lift weights, do crunches, and if I have to, I can put in a pretty decently timed run for several miles. I've also been trained in self defence among other skills that former military/mercenaries/gang-banbers can teach you.

Unfortunately, no one thought to teach me about bomb defusal. And really, when you think about it, what's up with that? I suppose they 1) hoped that when I started working for Rangeman and it became well known that I could take care of myself, people would stop stalking me and planting bombs (what, I haven't mentioned the stalkers yet?) and 2) they figured Ranger would wear me down and I would start living in the apartments in Rangeman's building on Haywood. Well, looks like they were wrong on both counts. I still get a decent number of stalkers, and I refuse to lose my independence by moving in to Rangeman. Plus, who wants to live AND work in the same building as their ex… whatever Ranger is. We may be friends, but that would be too much, especially when one of us started dating again. That would be awkward.

They'd never stopped trying to convince me to at least move to a more secure building, but a hate moving so I'd always put it off. Which brings me around to my current predicament. And sorry for taking so long to get here, but really that all flashed very quickly through my mind as soon as I opened my apartment door and saw those numbers flashing in front of my face. I guess some bad guys still use timers on their bombs, because those numbers are counting down, and I'm pretty sure that's a bomb they're strapped to. There's not a lot of time on there, and, unfortunately, I've left my phone in my car and I turned in my panic button when Ranger and I went back to just being friends.

So, I did what I think anyone would do, I pulled the fire alarm and then started on the top floor and went door to door as fast as I can. Now, the fire alarm will usually clear out most people, but I have a lot of senior citizens in my building who take out their hearing aids and fall asleep in front of a flashing TV by this time at night, so they don't always make it out on their own. I know this from experience because, unfortunately, we all have a lot of it. I also knew my building super, Dillon, who lives in the basement, would start clearing out the apartments on the bottom floors.

Thank goodness my hamster, Rex, was currently hanging out at Rangeman, as he'd been unofficially adopted as a mascot there after more than a few close calls and overnight surveillance shifts. I was almost with the apartments and was helping who, I thought, was my last elderly neighbor move, more slowly than I'd like, through the lobby and out to the parking lot, when a big man ran up and took over. As he put his shoulder under the man's armpit on the opposite side and wrapped his arm around his back, we touched briefly, and I felt a tingle. A very, very good tingle that spread through my body, lingering in all the interesting spots. A tingle I hadn't felt in a while.

I mentally shook myself. "Thanks!" I shouted, "I'm just going to make sure no one else is in there!" I ran back up to the floor above mine, the fourth and top floor, and mentally ran through the list of tenants and apartments. Everyone accounted for. I went down to my floor and did the same. Everyone accounted for. I stopped briefly at my apartment door and saw only a little over one minute remained on the timer. I'd already cleared the second floor and I was just going to have to trust Dillon when he said that everyone was out of the first floor.

I turned around and ran into a muscled chest. It was the man from downstairs. "Come on, I shouted, we have to get out of here!"

His eyes bugged out a little seeing the bomb then nodded briefly and grabbed on to my arm and started running, keeping pace with me. Somehow, the stairwell door had jammed. Without a second thought, I grabbed his hand and turned around, running back toward my apartment, shouting "trust me!".

We ran right past the bomb and out onto my fire escape. 30 seconds. I started down the stairs and the man just grabbed me around the waist, picked me up bridal style, and jumped down. I screeched in shock before going utterly speechless as he landed and then ran, with me in his arms, further away from the building as if he'd just jumped off a porch step or something. I tried to get a good look at his face, but it was dark and I was being jostled around in his arms quite a bit.

We made it around to the street where all the tenants were gathered just as the bomb went off behind us. "Damn, he's fast!" I thought, might even give Ranger and Lester a run for their money.

He turned around and gently set me down on my feet, keeping his arms on my shoulders to help steady me. I couldn't help but notice that there was an oddly shaped duffel bag on the ground by us, which was odd. But I suppose it was probably his. He certainly didn't live in my building.

"Was anyone in that last apartment?" he asked, "the one with the bomb."

"Probably not, as it is my apartment and I live alone. Though people break into it a lot, clearly, so I suppose we won't know for sure until they finish their investigation."

He turned and looked at me, "that was your apartment?! Why would anyone put a bomb in a dame- I mean, woman's- apartment?"

I snorted before I could stop myself and patted him on the shoulder. "Trust me, it wasn't the first time, and it probably won't be the last." I replied. Then I paused and thought for a minute, "Well, I suppose it is the first bomb-bomb. There's been grenades, rockets, arson, among others, but that may be the first time someone's used an actual bomb like that. Truth be told I don't quite remember."

At this point, he was just staring, his jaw dropped in disbelief. I stuck my hand out, "Stephanie Plum, thanks for your help. It would have been worse without you there. Please don't be my stalker or the person who left the bomb."

His eyes widened, almost comically, "N..no, that wasn't me" he gasped, obviously still taking in the fact that I wasn't overly shocked to have found a bomb in my apartment. Or maybe it was that I'd semi-accused him of planting it. Hey, a girl can never be too careful!

"I was happy to help, ma'am. My name is Steve R-" he was cut off by the squeal of tires and the howl of the sirens.

"Ah, yes, the cavalry is here!"

"What? Melinda May is here?"

I looked at him funny, "I don't know a Melinda, but my coworkers are hooked up to the police scanners and they always show up as soon as a call goes out with my address. And I left my phone in my car, so I haven't answered their calls, and as I mentioned I'm prone to events like this as well as stalkers, so I'm sure they're quite concerned right now. Sorry in advance if they…"

I trailed off as all of the sudden we were quickly surrounded by Merry Men, dressed in all black, with their guns drawn and pointed directly at Steve. "Step away from the girl!" they were shouting, "Get on the ground, hands behind your head!"

I noticed that there were several cops mixed in with my guys at this point. Steve was tensed up, clearly taking in the situation around him as he slowly raised his hands behind his head and then knelt on the ground.

I stepped between him and Ranger, who stood out among his men with his second-in-command, Tank right beside him. "Ranger! Stop, he helped me clear the building!"

Ranger raised up his hand and the men dropped their guns by their sides, but remained alert and didn't holster their weapons.

I motioned for Steve to stay down a little while longer.

"So, what's up?" I said to everyone, trying to diffuse the situation a little.

"I don't know, Babe, we got the call about the bomb and you weren't answering the phone. Who is this, and how do you know him?"

"This is Steve. We just met. He helped me clear the last of my neighbors out of the building, then helped me get out just before it exploded. We were just getting around to introductions when you went all 'Rangers' on his ass. Can you back down a bit? My spidey sense isn't going off with him, and he did help. I think we should give him the benefit of the doubt."

_**Steve's POV**_

I relaxed ever so slightly when I noticed the men relax even more after Stephanie said that her "spider sense?" whatever that was, wasn't going off. I wonder if she has some sort of special powers? That'd be interesting, maybe this was a set-up. If nothing else, I was more glad than ever that I'd managed to push my alert button when I saw the bomb in that apartment. _My_ backup should be arriving before _too_ long. In the meantime, I'd just see what happened.

"I'm sorry I didn't answer my phone," Stephanie was saying, "I accidentally left it charging in my car when I went upstairs. Why don't you all calm down a minute while I go grab it?" she suggested.

"Got ID?" a huge man standing next to the "Ranger" fellow asked me. He'd called Stephanie "Babe," so I guess maybe this is her boyfriend?

"Yes," I replied, "I'm just going to slowly reach into my bag here with my left hand and get it out."

"Slowly" was his only reply.

I cautiously reached into my bag, making a show of appearing calm while searching around. In reality, I knew exactly where in the bag my ID was, but I wanted to get my shield loose for easier access, just in case. I was taking in my surroundings the whole time, keeping tabs on all the men, but I couldn't help but let my gaze wander over to Stephanie.

She was walking toward the car and had pulled her keys out of her pocket. She stopped and looked at it for a minute, a shiver seeming to run up her spine before she shrugged and pushed a button. I could hear the car unlock and also start-up and then I noticed the flash on the dashboard. With my improved senses, I could just see a reflection in the windshield that looked like single digit numbers counting down!

Without a thought about the armed me around me, I reached in my bag and grabbed my shield while simultaneously jumping up and taking off after her. I grabbed onto her waist as I felt a jolt in my shoulder and heard a man yell, "No! Hold your fire!" Not even pausing I pulled her down with me and covered her with my body putting my shield between us and the car. I felt the pressure in the heat a split second before I heard the explosion. I just held onto Stephanie, making sure her head was covered, and waited.

Finally all I heard was silence, and the gasps and panting of the woman under me. I was a little surprise since she seemed so indifferent about the first explosion, but I guess the second one got to her.

"Damnit!" she yelled, "not my apartment AND my car!"

I slowly released her so I could stand and looked up at the men dressed in black. They were staring at me without saying anything, but their guns weren't drawn, so I guess that's a good thing.

Stephanie turned to me and said, "Oh my god, I can't thank you enough. Are you okay?! What am I saying, of course you're not okay, you just lay down and Bobby will look at your burns and any shrapnel. How are you standing? BOBBY!"

I shook my head and said, "I'm fine."

Meanwhile, I heard one of the guys snicker and watched him shove at another man. "Man, Les, I can't believe you shot Captain America!"

At that, Stephanie paused, then looked down at the shield in my hand. I just reached my hand out to her and said, "As I was saying before we got interrupted, my name is Steve. Steve Rogers. Happy to help."

I watched her slowly process this information, and open her mouth to respond, when I heard someone yell, "Jesus Christ, Cupcake! What the hell did you do now?! What is this, another stalker of yours? Why can't you just lead a normal life?! Get a decent job? And new friends!"

I was seriously beginning to wonder about this woman. And who was this new guy. Why would he automatically assume it was her fault. He didn't even ask if she was okay. I tuned out his ranting as I looked at the rest of the men around us. They seemed to have relaxed about me, but were on alert now scanning the area around us looking for additional threats. No, seriously, what is the deal with this woman?

Just then it started pouring rain out of nowhere and I heard the sound of what, I've been repeatedly informed, was AC/DC's "Back in Black".

Iron Man flew through the air and landed next to me and actually between Stephanie and the majority of the men. Then Thor flew in with his hammer and landed a few feet away at my back, twirling his hammer around threateningly. I heard Stephanie's squeak of surprise and fear, and reached over and twined my fingers with hers and squeezed her hand in what I was hoping was a reassuring manner. I felt rather than heard her take a deep breath and relax a little. Then she she muttered so quietly I barely heard it beyond the music "Holy fucking hell, he's fucking Captain America and that's Iron Man and Thor. Am I even awake right now?" I had the sneaking suspicion that she hadn't meant to say that aloud.

"What do we have here?" I heard Tony say in a bemused tone.

I was about to open my mouth, when I heard Stephanie shout, "Guys, seriously?! You know who they are! Put your guns down, are you insane. Let's take the testosterone down a notch." then under her breath again, I heard her mutter, "or three."

As the men started ever so reluctantly lowering their weapons, I turned to Tony and then Thor and said, "stand down," watching as Thor stopped swinging his hammer and Tony turned off his music and lowered his face mask.

"Okay," Stephanie said after another deep breath. "Steve, it appears you are Captain America, is that correct?"

I heard Tony chuckle as I responded, "yes".

"So then is it safe to say you aren't stalking me and you didn't bomb my apartment OR my car?"

I just gaped at her for a second, and before I could reply, Tony barked out a laugh, "are you kidding?! He's Captain America. He can barely hold a conversation with a woman, let alone stalk one. He'd die if he accidentally saw even one inch more skin than you're showing now. And he can't even lie let alone bomb innocent civilians!"

"Alright, then I suggest we all relax for the night. I'm going to go out on a limb," she said, glancing over at the men dressed in black and not even sparing a glance at the last man who had arrived, "and say that I'll be giving a statement to the cops and then heading back to the Rangeman offices and we'll be working on figuring this out." This Ranger guy just nodded, as did the rest of the men.

"You are all three welcome to join us," she said, causing some of the men to start to protest, but they stopped as soon as they saw the look in her eyes.

I glanced over at Tony and Thor, and said, "are the others?" when they nodded, I turned to the larger group. "Just so you're aware, I think we'll be having some more people join us while we wait. Then, we will take you up on your offer to be involved in the investigation. I'm not going to leave until I know that you're safe." I directed the last part at Stephanie.

She just looked in my eyes for a few second and I could feel an inexplicable connection again that I'd felt the few times we'd touched tonight. It was… soothing…

Then she turned and reached out her hand to Tony, introducing herself without a care in the world for the fact that this was a highly dangerous man and that she was shaking hand with him through a metal suit. After she had done so, she turned and did the same for Thor, not even hesitating for a second at his bizarre armor. And all I could think was, she must be one special lady to just accept us like this, no questions asked.

After the introductions were made, she went over to the other men in black, still studiously ignoring the late comer, who I now gathered was a cop, and talked to them. She seemed to be reassuring them that she was fine.

Tony and Thor finally stood fully down and walked over to me to start to get the story when Toney suddenly gasped and reached out for me. "Cap! Who shot you?!" he exclaimed before going back into full armor and Thor started pulling together a storm again.

"Calm down," I explained, "They didn't know who I was, and they were protecting her!"

As I nodded toward Stephanie, I noticed that she had clearly heard what Tony said and was wide eyed!

The one that I had previously determined to be "Les" shuffled his feet and muttered something to her, and she turned around and smacked him upside the head. "Lester Santos," she scolded, "Why did you shoot him?!"

"Beautiful, he was a stranger, your apartment has just exploded, and he was running at you! I didn't know he was Captain America!" he justified before turning to me and saying, "I'm truly sorry, sir."

I just waved him off and just said, "I understand."

Stephanie was walking back toward me, gesturing to another of the men. "This is Bobby Brown, he's a trained former-Army medic and he handles all of my gunshot wounds. Well the ones that are minor enough that I can talk him out of making me go to the hospital. Will you please let him look you over?"

I nodded my assent as one of the men in the background hustled up to Bobby and handed him a medic's bag. I tried not to blush as I shrugged off my shirt and heard Stephanie groan. After a couple minutes, Bobby was offering me stitches and recommending that I go to the hospital, but I just shrugged him off. "Go ahead with the stitches if you feel the need, but I'll heal soon enough."

Then as he prepped a local anesthetic and pain killers, I just waved him off and said, "don't bother, they won't work, it's fine."

He looked over at Thor and Tony who just nodded in agreement before cleaning the area and beginning the stitches. Stephanie was next to me, flinching when he started stitching and holding my hand. I looked at her, slightly alarmed since we had just met, but Lester just shook his head and said, "don't worry, she does this when we get hurt too. Just let her fuss over you; you won't be able to stop her anyway, you'll just annoy her trying. And you did just risk your life, at least twice by the sounds of it, to help her, so you won't be able to shake her off."

I noticed that everyone in the vicinity seemed to have stopped what they were doing in favor of watching Stephanie and I. As much as I didn't understand or welcome the attention, I was used to some level of spectacle when I went out or when the Avengers and I completed a big mission. But I was surprised by the level of scrutiny. It seemed extreme even for us.

I turned to Tony and started to say something when a Quinjet suddenly hovered just above the parking lot, allowing the rest of the Avengers to assemble around us. I guess the other men took my warning to heart because they barely tensed up at all and didn't draw on the newcomers, for which I was grateful. Somehow I didn't think that Clint and Natasha would appreciate that too much.

Natasha looked over and took in Stephanie hovering and holding my hand and grinned. I opened my mouth, but before I could say anything, Natasha said, "who is this? Is she why you wouldn't ask out Kristen from statistics?"

"What? No! I! I just met Stephanie! And…" I trailed off stuttering as the rest of the Avengers chuckled and everyone just looked on with bewildered expressions.

Stephanie walked up and introduced herself to each new addition before turning to one of the uniformed cops and saying, "Eddie, mind if we take this to Rangeman? I think maybe this would be better handled not out in the open at this point."

The cop just nodded, and Stephanie turned back to Natasha and I. "Can I hitch a ride with you guys and lead you to Rangeman? There's a helipad and space on the roof for you to park that… thing…"

Natasha and I both nodded and I put my hand on the small of her back, picking up my duffel and guiding her onto the jet, which had managed to land on the street. Once we were inside, she turned back to the men dressed in black and shouted, "see you at Haywood!"

As the loading door was rising, I heard a, "what the hell, Cupcake?!" again. Then there was relative silence as the jet took off and all of the Avengers stood in a semi-circle staring a Stephanie and I. I chuckled as she gave them all a finger-wave then said, "Hi, I'm Steph. It's a pleasure to meet you all. Do you mind if I tell your pilot where to go before answering all your questions?"

We just nodded and I lead her to the cockpit. The lead into a possible threat I had been looking into earlier this evening had been a dead end, but this had certainly turned into an interesting night.

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**Reminder: This is a repost!**This story will live at s/10564271/1/When-Star-Spangled-Plans-Meet-Bombshell-Chaos so please go there and follow that story if you're interested in reading more!


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **The characters and things you recognize in this story don't belong to me. They belong to Marvel and Janet Evanovich. I'm pretty sure you'll recognize which is which. Mistakes belong to me.

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Chapter 2

_**Steve's POV**_

My eyes lingered where Stephanie had just stood while she made her way up to the pilot. Natasha cleared her throat to get my attention and I glanced up to notice the matching grins on my teams' faces. I blushed. "I was just… thinking about something…" I finished lamely.

Tony barked out a laugh, "Yeah, we know what you were thinking about!"

I blushed even more and just stared uncomfortably at my shoes. Tony was right, and I couldn't think of a single thing to say.

Bruce finally took pity on me and said, "why don't you tell us what is going on here. Who is this woman? What were you doing in Trenton? Were you attacked by Hydra in that building? And what on earth happened to that car?"

I let out a sigh of relief; debriefs I can do. "I was in Trenton looking into a potential threat for Hill, but that didn't pan out. I thought I'd walk around a little and try to get a feel for the area.- see if I heard or saw anything that suggested the threat was real and I just had the wrong location. I was walking past that apartment building when I saw a bunch of people in their night clothes in the parking lot. That seemed odd, so I took a closer look and saw Stephanie helping an elderly man out through the lobby door. I wasn't sure why they were evacuating, so I rushed over to help them in case it was time sensitive."

Stephanie rejoined us and stood next to me, again seemingly unconcerned with the fact that she was with six of the deadliest people in the world, two of whom were assassins and spies.

"I had just started helping the man out of the building, when Stephanie yelled that she was going to check if there were any more people and went back into the building." I continued, "Once I got the man out and a safe distance away, I went back in to help Stephanie, neutralize the threat if I could, and make sure she got out of the building as well."

"I found her on the third floor of a building, running away from a bomb that was showing just under one minute left on the timer."

At that everyone turned and stared at Stephanie, clearly with looks on their faces wondering why she was with a bomb and whether or not she had set it.

"I just wanted to know if there was time for me to save my shoes," I heard her mutter.

Natasha left out a surprised chuckle, and Stephanie's head whipped up from staring at the ground in thought. Her eyes widened and she said one of the most endearing things I'd heard in a long time, "did I say that out loud?"

Everyone burst out in laughter and when she looked at me, I just nodded.

I felt the quinjet start to land, and reached out a hand to stabilize Stephanie. Her eyes met mine, and I felt that connection again and blushed. She smiled and whispered her thanks before turning to the group and saying, "is it okay if we continue this inside?"

Once everyone had given their assent, Stephanie started leading the way. Tony was still in his suit and everyone else was armed. My gut was telling me I could trust Stephanie and these men, but it had been wrong before, so I grabbed my shield and harness to strap it onto my back. I always felt more comfortable when I had it on anyway.

In a few strides, I caught up to the group as Stephanie was saying, "since we flew, I'd imagine everyone else is still at least a couple minutes behind us. My fob will get us in and down to the conference room though."

We walked into a staircase from the rooftop and down several flights before reaching a door for the second floor. I'd caught up to Stephanie and reached to open the door after she'd used her fob and I heard the locks click open, allowing her, and Natasha, to pass through the door before me."

"Thanks!" Stephanie called out as she walked further into the building. I watched as she looked across the hallway and smiled giving a small wave. I was baffled for a minute by that since there was no one there, until I noticed the camera.

"I think Junior's on monitors tonight."

The conference room door was already open and Stephanie squealed with delight as she led us in. I noticed an older woman with a cart setting up quite the spread of food, and Stephanie exclaimed, "Ella! You're the best. I love you! When are you going to adopt me?!"

The woman, presumably Ella, just chuckled, finished laying out the food, handed Stephanie a pre-made plate and patted Stephanie on the cheek with a smile. She then glanced over at us, not hesitating even a fraction of a second, and wheeled her empty cart out.

Stephanie turned back to us with joy in her eyes and said, "that's Ella. She's the generally runs the building. She's the housekeeper for those who live in the building and she keeps the break room stocked with delicious, delicious food! You can hardly even tell that it is healthy."

She bit into a cookie and let out a moan that had me shifting uncomfortably with my eyes bugging out of my head. I noticed the other men shifting as well and Natasha just looked amused.

I heard a chuckle and tensed up for a second before I heard the "Babe" that followed. I turned around to see none other than that Ranger guy. How had he gotten here so quickly? And how had he snuck up on me? I guess I was too distracted by watching Stephanie.

"Please feel free to grab some food or some coffee and a seat; the others should be here any second," said Ranger.

I noticed Tony glancing around the conference room a bit, assessing, before he nodded his approval and went over to a side wall and stood with his back to it, arms crossed against his chest. Clint and Natasha wandered over to get themselves some coffee before sitting down at the table next to Bruce who had already taken a seat. Thor, unsurprisingly, was helping himself to a large plate of food, and I went over and snagged a muffin, trying to seem disinterested as Ranger wrapped Stephanie in a hug.

Ranger stepped back, held her at arms length, and checked her over for injuries. Stephanie rolled her eyes and said, "I'm fine, Ranger. Not even a scratch thanks to Steve."

Ranger nodded and came over to me and shook my hand, introducing himself and thanking me for helping Stephanie. He then moved on and introduced himself to the rest of the team.

Slowly more of the men in black started filing into the room. One by one they repeated the process, sweeping her into big hugs, reassuring themselves that she was okay, then thanking me and introducing themselves to the rest of the team. How many nicknames did this woman have? I think I heard her called "Little Girl", "Beautiful", "Bomber" (I quirked an eyebrow at that one), "Bombshell" (she most certainly was one), "Angel", and "Angelita". One of the cops shuffled in and did the same routine, simply calling her Stephanie before reassuring her that Joe wouldn't be joining us. I assumed that was the angry man from the crime scene earlier.

Once everyone had settled in, the meeting was underway. Stephanie came to the back of the room and stood next to me, which seemed to cause more than a few surprised as well as curious looks. Those looks were usually followed by "casual" glances at Ranger. The seat to his right was empty and I could tell Stephanie usually sat there.

I looked at Ranger but couldn't read anything in his blank face.

"Alright," Ranger said, "welcome to the Trenton headquarters of Rangeman, LLC. Stephanie as well as all the men here who aren't in cop uniforms work for me. We're all here to figure out what happened and determine if there is a continued threat to Stephanie. Babe?"

"I left work a little later than usual because I was caught up in that search I was running. By the way, don't hire Daniels, he's got gambling debts and I think he's bad news." Ranger nodded and Stephanie continued, "I went up to my apartment and I didn't notice anything unusual on my way up. When I opened my door, which was locked, I heard a beeping noise. I looked down and saw what appeared to be a bomb, I mean, I wasn't sure, but it certainly LOOKED like a bomb, so I figured it was better to assume it was one and be wrong, than assume it wasn't one. I mean, it's me, so I figured odds were in favor of it ending up being one. Why does everyone have to try to blow me up? Sometimes it really makes you wonder what I did in a past life."

"Babe."

"Right. Anyway, I assumed it was a bomb, so I pulled the fire alarm and started helping people evacuate the building."

"Why didn't you call us immediately?" Tank, the giant man from earlier said.

"I'm sorry, Tank. You know I don't carry a panic button anymore, and I'd accidentally left my phone in my car. I didn't want to waste time getting it when I could be getting people out."

She then went on to explain the evacuation of her neighbors and my arrival on the scene. When she finished, Ranger asked me to go through my version of events.

As soon as I was done, Lester said, "so, you have a button on your watch that you push and it lets the rest of the Avengers know that you need assistance?"

I nodded my head in affirmation and every man in black fixed their gaze on Stephanie with serious intensity. "See, Beautiful," Lester said, "Captain America carries a panic button! If he can, why can't you?!"

"Actually, we all carry one," chimed in Tony, "I made them myself. They have a few… additional features as well."

All eyes were still fixed on Stephanie and she shifted in her seat uncomfortably for a few seconds. Then she looked up, and I was surprised to notice fire in her eyes as she said, "if it was just a panic button, I would. But it isn't just a panic button, it is a tracker that you monitor at all times! Not to mention all the additional trackers you put on me. In my purse, in my makeup, on my car! I won't have you monitoring my every move!" she exclaimed.

Can't say I blame her there, I wouldn't want anyone tracking my every move either. Still, I guess I didn't understand why she would need that kind of protection. I was about to ask when Natasha beat me to the punch. Before anyone could respond, Tony said, "Jarvis, if you would."

All of the sudden a projector whirled on and a large screen lowered itself in the corner of the room. Ranger narrowed his eyes at Tony, clearly displeased that he'd managed to take control of the electronics in the room. A man named Hector whipped out a laptop and started muttering to himself in Spanish and typing away furiously.

"Oh, don't take it too harshly," Tony said, "this took Jarvis and I _much_ longer than usual to pull off."

At that, a bunch of news articles and video clips of local news reports started playing on the screen. It started with an article about who I recognized to be the guy who was ranting at Stephanie at the crime scene earlier. Apparently he was a cop accused of murder and Stephanie had been assigned to bring him in when he skipped bail as her very first case. She'd managed to bring him in AND prove that he wasn't the murderer. Each subsequent story was about Stephanie and some sort of, well, catastrophe that seemed to have happened to her. I tensed when I saw pictures of Stephanie standing the middle of a circle surrounded by what appeared to be dozens of dead gang members. I felt her shudder next to me and reached over, grabbed her hand, and gave it a quick squeeze before letting go again.

There was silence when the videos and stories stopped. There hadn't been anything more recent than a couple months ago. My team and I turned to her, now with utmost respect for what she'd pulled herself through as well as a bit of amusement for how she reacted.

"Well, that's just great, was that really necessary? I've never seen it all laid out like that before. And that didn't even include the stalkers that didn't make it into the news. None of that may have been directly my fault, but I really am a disaster. Maybe I _should_ listen to my mother and go try to get a job at the button factory even if the boredom kills me."

This was met with protests throughout the room and I chimed in saying, "What I just saw wasn't a disaster. I saw a courageous, determined woman who is a fighter."

I was surprised when Natasha, of all people, chimed in with, "he's right you know. A lot of people wouldn't have made it through all of that. They would have given up probably after their first confrontation with that Benito Ramirez character. From what I could see, none of that was your fault, but you stuck with it and saw it through to the end. Heck, I don't think I saw any mention of a skip that got away. What's your capture rate?"

"95%" this came from Tank. I didn't know anything about bounty hunting, but based on Clint and Natasha's barely visible reactions and how all the Rangemen employees seemed to puff up with pride, I felt comfortable saying that was exceptional.

"Nice," continued Natasha. I was pretty sure she's up to something because she doesn't usually talk this much. I was also pretty sure it had to do with her comment earlier about not asking out Kristen from statistics. "As for the rest of you, you run a security company and she's your coworker who you all seem to care about. Did you not teach her how to fight?"

A couple of the guys shifted uncomfortably, clearly wanting to say something but not wanting to take on _the_ Black Widow.

"Actually, that was mostly my fault. Despite all of this, I didn't really start to take my training all that seriously until I started working here full time a few months ago. They've been working with me since then and I just recently passed their basic entry-level required testing."

Natasha turned back to Stephanie and said, "Well, we'll just have to see how well they've trained you. But either way, they're men, so they can't completely understand how to train a woman. Judging by the look of Cap over there, I'm pretty sure we're going to be staying here until we know you're safe, so I'll work with you while I'm here."

Stephanie visibly paled at this before taking a deep breath then nodding gamely.

When Natasha mentioned staying, the other Avengers just nodded along, so I guess we are staying. I wasn't aware that I had a "look", but then again I suppose after all the missions, Nat knew me the best of probably anyone alive today, so she probably could see what others hopefully could not.

The attention shifted back to Ranger and he started peppering Stephanie with questions, and I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Tony was up to something. He'd dropped his mask back down, so I knew he was talking to Jarvis. I was half listening and sorting out the facts in my mind. To be honest, it didn't seem like there were many of them. Stephanie hadn't seen anything on her way in. She hadn't received any strange letters or threats recently. No one she had brought in to jail had seemed overly hostile toward her. That she knew of, no one had broken into her apartment recently.

It still seemed so strange to hear her add "recently" as a qualification to all those items, but having seen that newsreel, I guess it was fitting. I noticed the cops get up and leave, I guess they had enough information for their initial report.

I wondered how we were going to go about keeping her safe though, given that we clearly didn't have even a hint of an idea of who was behind this. With that thought, I shifted my mind back to the conversation noticing that Stephanie had tensed up and was looking stubborn.

"Absolutely not," Stephanie was saying.

"Babe, be realistic here. We don't have any employee apartments available right now, and you can't stay with your parents. You'd go crazy and you'd be putting them in danger."

"I will not be staying with you in your apartment, Ranger."

That was good to know.

"You've stayed there before."

I tensed up. I just met this woman, but still I could have done without hearing that.

"That was different, things were different then. I'm not staying there ever again. Besides, I've been working full time for you for a while now. I can afford a hotel to stay in for a week or two while I look for a more permanent solution."

I didn't like the idea of her staying alone in a hotel, but a part of me was extremely pleased to hear her put Ranger in his place and state in no uncertain terms that she would be "staying" with him ever again. Because she seemed to put more meaning behind that word than simply sleeping arrangements.

"But it will be difficult to protect you in a hotel, Babe."

Just then, Tony chimed in with, "she can stay with us."

Stephanie's head whipped over as she looked at Tony with surprise.

Clint piped up, "and where are we staying, Tony?"

"I just bought a house. It looks like it was previously secured by Rangeman, LLC, so we I would imagine it will be pretty easy for them to hook back up and update as they see fit. Then once everything squared away, I can keep it for a vacation home or just sell it. It's on the beach so I think it should keep its value pretty well. It will take a day to get the paperwork and everything settled, so I've booked a few suites on the top floor of a nearby hotel for tonight. Stephanie can have her own room in a suite with Avengers in the other rooms. I'd imagine everyone here can agree that would be pretty safe for one night?"

Bobby smirked, "I'm pretty sure you had her at 'beach'."

Ranger was staring at me intently. He jerked his head toward the hallway and said, "A word, Captain?"

Stephanie started shaking her head, "nope, not happening, Ranger."

"It's fine, Stephanie," I said before nodding my head in agreement and walking out into the hallway.

I heard someone, I thought it was Lester snicker, and Ranger barked out, without turning around, "Santos! Mats, 0700!"

We reached the hallway and strode a little further down to a smaller conference room. Ranger pulled out a fob like the one Stephanie had used to get in the building and pushed a button on it.

He turned to me and said in a warning tone, "Everything I've heard about you and managed to pull up on you on my way back here says that you're a gentleman. That you know how to treat women right. So, I don't have to worry about your intentions with Steph, right?"

I wasn't about to be intimidated by her ex, but I could also tell that he was very concerned about her safety, both physically and emotionally, so I said, "look, she and I just met, but I assure you, she's safe with me."

He gave a curt nod, "if she decides to go with you all, I will hold you personally responsible for her safety. We'll supplement her security with Rangeman, but I will ultimately hold you responsible. I may not be a super soldier, but trust me when I say that if anything happens to her, I can and will hunt you down. Just ask Barton."

I nodded and, with that, he pushed the button on his fob again and gestured me out the door.

_**Steph's POV**_

Well, shit. What the fuck. As soon as Ranger walked out of the room with the Captain, Hector pulled up the video feed for us all to see. We watched as Ranger led Steve to the small conference room down the hall, and when he scrambled the cameras I said, "nuh uh" and made a move to rush out and down the hall.

Tank, quicker than he looked, was there blocking my way. "Nope, you're going to leave them be, Little Girl."

Great. Ranger may not actually be Batman like I called him from time to time, but I was pretty sure that Steve was unarmed and, super soldier or not, Ranger might very well be killing him right now.

Hawkeye scoffed, "Manoso's good, I've seen him in action, but so is Cap. And trust me when I say that his shield isn't just for defense so he's definitely armed. I don't think either of them is going to kill the other one though, just give them a few minutes."

I turned to Lester and sighed, "out loud?" At the Merry Men's laughs I just said, "I've really got to get better about that!"

Just then the cameras unscrambled and I muttered "well, that was quick and no one seems to be dead" as Hector scrambled to turn off the feed in the conference room.

They walked back in, Steve returning to the back of the room and standing next to me again, slightly closer this time. Ranger took his seat at the head of the table.

"Steph," Ranger said, "have you thought about Mr. Stark's offer? Does that work for you?"

I mean, hell, Bobby was right, they had me at beach. And I'd love some more time to explore whatever this freaky connection was with Steve. I'd never felt anything like it. Ranger and I had always had chemistry, but this was different, more. Somehow this managed to be comforting and hot and everything else under the sun all rolled into one indescribable feeling.

I looked at Steve out of the corner of my eye and he was looking at me with great concentration, then I looked over at Tony who had a friendly smile on his face but looked genuinely concerned as well.

"Are you sure it's not too much trouble, Mr. Stark?"

"Aren't we polite? I'm pretty sure I introduced myself to you as Tony, so you should call me that." I could tell he was on the verge of saying something else, maybe about what else I could call him, but he looked at Steve and decided against it. I had a feeling Tony and Lester were probably a lot alike. "And yes, it's fine. I already bought the house. I wouldn't have done that or made the offer if I wasn't sure about it."

I nodded my head. I turned to Steve with the question in my eyes and I could immediately tell that was what he wanted. So I asked, "I assume you need to get that plane back, right?"

"Yes, the pilot actually left to fly back as soon as we got inside the building."

"Ranger, can we please borrow a couple of SUVs?"

Ranger nodded his assent.

"Okay, then you all figure out the rest of the security details for the hotel and the house. I'm going to go grab a few things from my desk and the women's locker room. I'll be back by the time you get that squared away and we can negotiate bodyguards and trackers. Don't go overboard… any of you. Remember, no direct threat, so for all we know it wasn't even aimed at me and it is over."

I heard everyone scoff skeptically and I just shrugged my shoulders and headed out, taking the elevator to the 5th floor. I stopped by the armory and grabbed an extra purse (yes, I got them to start stocking concealed carry purses around the time I'd insisted on Rangeman helping me get a LEGAL concealed carry permit), a stun gun, and some extra magazines for my gun.

I carried them with me and went back to my desk. I took my gun out of the small of my back, where I'd tucked it when I got to my apartment the first time. I put the gun, stun gun, and extra rounds in their respective pockets. I felt someone coming up behind me, but knew it wouldn't be a threat. I was only partially right it was the Black Widow.

"Hi…" I trailed off, not really sure what to call her. "Agent Romanoff? Is there something I can help you with?" I asked turning my back to her as I opened my drawer and started grabbing my backup makeup supply.

"You can call me Natasha. Or Nat. Or even Tasha if you'd like."

I got the sense that not a lot of people were given that privilege. Especially the last two. I turned and looked her in the eye and said, "Thanks. You can call me Steph."

She nodded back, "So, what's the deal with you and Ranger?"

"We're friends," I said with a shrug. I could feel her eyes on me, so I turned back to her making eye contact again and saying, "no, really. We had a… thing… a while ago, but Ranger doesn't do relationships and I couldn't settle for anything less, so that is over. Has been for months. He's still my mentor and my best friend though. It was weird for a while, but we've gotten past that now. There's nothing there."

"And the cop from the scene?"

I should have realized she would have caught that. "Ugh, Joe Morelli. He's my ex. We had an on-off relationship for a couple years. It was toxic, so I ended it. He is having a little more difficult of a time accepting that fact. So is my mother. But regardless, it is, without a doubt over."

She smiled at this. An actual smile. Then she said, "you know, Cap's single too."

I turned back around and fiddled with my purse as I said, "oh, okay" and tried to act like I really didn't care. In reality, my insides were fluttering with happiness at this news.

I motioned for her to follow me and walked down to Ranger's office. I unlocked the door and walked in. I asked her to turn around and then I opened one of his safes and took out my extra concealed carry permit, driver's licence, etc. that he insisted on keeping a copy of for just these instances. I also grabbed the cell phone that he kept in there pre-programmed with my phone number and contacts. I closed the safe and Natasha walked over and eyed everything as I started putting it away in my purse.

"You're sure it is over?"

"Yep. I think he'll always protect me though and love me in his own way. It just isn't a romantic thing anymore, more like a protective big brother. Well, eww, considering our past no, not that, but something along those lines."

Natasha chuckled and said, "okay. So, locker room?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure all my clothes burned up, so yeah. I have some extra uniforms there that will have to do until I can go shopping. I hope they let me go shopping sometime soon. And without too many guards- the men have a way of looking way too intense and scaring everyone in the mall."

"I would imagine so. Don't worry, we'll find a time to get you some clothes. Cap has some with him, but the rest of us don't, so we'll need to get some as well." Then she added with a wink, "we can get you some new shoes too."

We wound our way back to the conference room with Natasha telling me little stories about Steve along the way. I was surprised that she was being so open and friendly, I guess I'd assumed she'd be quiet and intimidating. At the same time though, I got the distinct impression that she really wanted to set me up with Steve. She wasn't subtle about it and I was certainly enjoying the information.

We walked back into the conference room and I noticed that some of the men had left. Steve had finally taken a seat, and was watching everyone and listening to the discussion with great care. He looked up though and smiled when I walked in. Wow. Ranger looked up too and just held out his hand expectantly.

I sighed and handed him my purse. He pulled the taser out and checked the battery. Then he pulled out my gun, made sure it was loaded, and checked that I had extra rounds with me. He noticed everything else I had and nodded his approval. I knew the safe would be restocked by lunchtime tomorrow. I noticed all of the Avengers watching the interaction, except for Natasha who seemed to have taken me at my word and believed me. She was whispering to Steve, who looked at me and grinned again. Guess she told him about Ranger and me.

I took my bag back and sat down in my usual seat next to Ranger. I looked at him and said, "guards?"

"Four Rangemen or two Avengers. Or one Avenger and two Rangemen. When you're working, this will be in addition to your partner so there'll be a second vehicle."

I thought about it for a minute then decided it was less than I was expecting and not worth fighting about, so I just nodded. I narrowed my eyes, "trackers."

I was surprised when this time Steve spoke up. By the tension that ratcheted up in the room, I figured this had been discussed in length. "Tony has a panic button on the way here for you now. It is a panic button only, no tracker. If you push it, it will notify the Avengers as well as Rangeman."

Interesting. I was expecting Ranger to insist on the trackers. If I had to guess, I'd say Steve and/or the other Avengers intervened on my behalf. I would happily accept this so I smiled and nodded. Then I looked over at Tony and said, "thanks." He just waved it off. I turned to Ranger who I knew would be having a very difficult time with this decision and murmured my thanks to him as well.

Just then Binky walked into the conference room and handed a package to Tony as well as a badge. He then proceeded to hand badges to Natasha, Clint, Bruce, Steve, and Thor as well.

Ranger said, "those badges will get you into the building and garage as well as this floor, the fifth floor, the gym, the shooting range, and the appropriate locker room. Looks like you finally have someone to share a locker room with, Steph."

Tony had opened his package then stopped by and conversed briefly with Hector and Lester. He then shut his mask for a few seconds before opening it back up and walking over to me. He handed me a simple bracelet with some charms on it. Upon closer inspection I noticed some handcuffs, a bomb, a doughnut, a birthday cake, an angel, and… the wonder woman symbol. How in the hell had he known that story?!

Tony chuckled and tapped his helmet saying, "Jarvis, my AI, is very good at finding things out. Okay, so this should be all set. If you wind up hanging around us longer, or this gets dragged out, we'll get you a better one. The bomb is actually a button, so if you want to test it out, just press that down."

I depressed the center of the bomb and almost instantly every cell phone in the room started blaring out an alarm sound, everyone pulled them out and checked their messages. Ranger slid his to me so that I could read the message and see that it showed that my alarm had been triggered and provided coordinates. I put the bracelet on and found it to be comfortable but fitted well- it wouldn't be falling off accidentally, even in a tussle.

"If someone's phone is within 100 feet of your signal, it will buzz rather than play the alert sound so as to hopefully not clue in anyone who shouldn't know that you've activated it. It will also connect Jarvis with the Control Room and Ranger directly for coordination between our teams."

"Wow, thanks. I can't believe you're doing this for me; we just met."

"We're not doing it for you, we're doing it for Capsicle. Now come on, we've got a hotel to check in to and I think we could all use some sleep."

I nodded and stood up. I turned to Ranger and gave him a quick hug before starting to follow the Avengers out of the room. He called out to me, "Babe, I know you got your backup phone. Leave it off for the night. I already let your family and friends know you're okay. You can delete all the messages tomorrow. And you can take tomorrow off if you want."

I just shook my head and he said, "okay, but you can come in a little late if you want. But you still have to go to the gym."

"I know! And I'll be in by 0700 to make sure you don't kill Les on the mats."

I saw Lester nod his gratitude to me.

Tony called out, "Expect a shipment in the morning. I'm going to go ahead and stock your gym up with some extra punching bags."

The Avengers just nodded their heads in acknowledgment while the Merry Men looked baffled by that comment. Ranger shrugged and then tossed me two sets of SUV keys and we were off.

"I can't believe I'm living with the Avengers temporarily," I thought, "I hope they understand what they've gotten themselves into."

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** A/N:** This is probably the last chapter I'll double post, so if you followed this one instead of the actual story, don't forget to switch over! You can search for it by selecting Crossover: Janet Evanovich X Avengers. Or get there directly at s/10566556/1/


	3. Chapter 3

**IrishHoney and Annelafn: Thanks for following! Now go follow the "actual" story at s/10564271/1/When-Star-Spangled-Plans-Meet-Bombshell-Chaos so that I can stop double posting. Deal? Ybanormlmom, same for your favorite. :) **

**Disclaimer: **The characters and things you recognize in this story don't belong to me. They belong to Marvel and Janet Evanovich. I'm pretty sure you'll recognize which is which. Mistakes belong to me.

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Chapter 3

_**Steve's POV**_

I stopped on our way out of the conference room to pick up my duffel bag and as I turned around I noticed Natasha exchange a meaningful look with Lester. That was odd. I'd noticed the two of them whispering to each other at some point during the security discussion earlier, and I'd found that strange at the time as well. Oh well, I'd figure it out eventually, so I just straightened up the rest of the way and moved on.

We all followed Stephanie down the staircase and into the garage. I watched as Stephanie pushed a button on another plastic key fob and an SUV's lights flashed. She pushed the same button on the other fob and the SUV next to it did the same. She glanced around the group then smiled and handled the second set of keys to Natasha. Natasha smirked and nodded her thanks before getting in the second SUV.

"Great, they've already formed an alliance. I knew we shouldn't have let Natasha go upstairs with her earlier! Women always do this."

Stephanie rolled her eyes and walked over to the drivers side of the car and yelled back, "get over it, Stark! And get in the car."

"Oooooh, bossy! I like her, Cap!" Tony said while climbing into the back seat of the SUV. I watched as Clint climbed into the front seat of Natasha's SUV and Thor climbed into the back. Bruce got into the backseat of Stephanie's SUV with Tony, so I shrugged when the latch to Stephanie's SUV opened and threw my duffle in the back and was surprised to see another small one already in there. Then I walked around and got into the front seat next to Stephanie. As I climbed in, I heard Tony informing her of which hotel to go to and watched as she programmed it into the SUV's GPS unit.

Then we sat. Stephanie didn't even start the car.

"Problem?" I asked.

"Yes, I see three grown men who don't know that they need to put their seatbelts on when they get in a car. And I'm not going anywhere until they do."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Please don't call me that, it makes me feel old," Stephanie sighed and Tony snickered in the background. "Just call me Steph. Or Stephanie if you'd rather. None of this ma'am business."

"Uh, sweetheart, I'm pretty sure you're the youngest one in this car. And Cap's got you beat by like 60 years. Also, I'm wearing a suit of armor, Cap heals crazy fast, and Bruce is practically invincible thanks to the other guy so..."

Stephanie just chuckled and said, "Seat belts boys, I'm waiting!"

Once we'd all buckled our seatbelts, she started the car and music immediately started playing. I wasn't too caught up on modern music, but I was pretty sure it was a genre called heavy metal, which I'll admit surprised me a little. As soon as she heard it, Stephanie chuckled and smiled the first true smile I'd seen from her.

"Metallica, nice!" came from Tony in the backseat. I guess that answered that question.

With that, Stephanie pulled out onto the street with Natasha behind her. Since it was late at night, or rather, early in the morning, we made it to the hotel quickly. I noticed Stephanie scanning for threats and tails the whole way, and I was impressed by the caution she was exercising. Although she hadn't seemed all that upset earlier, it was clear that she really was aware of the seriousness of the situation. Good. Hopefully that would make keeping her safe a little easier.

I know Ranger and his employees had badly wanted her wearing one of those trackers, and I felt sure they were tracking this car, but I'd put my foot down on the issue. She'd made her stance on being constantly tracked clear and I could understand her point of view. It would no doubt be stifling as a long-term solution.

What I didn't understand, and I'd said so much to the men earlier, was why, if she'd made it clear she wouldn't take a panic button with a tracker in it, they hadn't gotten her one without. It seemed as though, if they were that concerned about her, that would have been an easy compromise. They'd just looked at me baffled when I suggested it. Guess they were too busy complaining about her stubbornness to see their own. I was grateful that Tony had been able to get his hands on a simple panic button so quickly.

Stephanie found two parking spots on the street as near the hotel as possible, mumbling something about "Rangeman parking karma" to herself and we all piled out of the car. I grabbed both duffels with one hand, leaving the other free to fight if need be and just shook my head when Stephanie made to grab the second one. Without consciously discussing it, we all formed a circle around Stephanie as we walked toward the hotel. I thought she was going to comment on it, but instead she let it go.

"Did your car play Metallica when you started it up too? What's up with that?" questioned Natasha.

"Oh, yeah. The Merry Men spoil me. Well, they couldn't know which car I was going to get into, so they must have programmed both so they'd be covered either way."

"Merry Men?" questioned Thor.

"Right. You see, I used to joke about some of the things that Ranger could pull off by calling him Batman. Then one day I likened him to Robin Hood and then decided that his employees must be his 'Merry Men'. So that's what I call them now. Let me tell you, they did _not_ like it the first time they overheard it. But I figure they can deal with it."

Clint barked out a laugh. "I've been in the field with Ranger and some of his men a few times. They would always tell stories about Babe and Bomber and all those other nicknames I heard them use today. I never realized they were all one woman. Something tells me there isn't a lot they wouldn't do for you. Including die."

"Well, that seems fair since I'd die for them too."

Clint stopped scanning the area and just stared at her. "You better not because it would destroy every one of them." Clint replied, then he went back to his constant surveillance. I was going to have to ask him more about this group of men later. I found myself wanting to know everything about Stephanie and these people who meant so much to her.

Natasha had made a point of telling me that Stephanie was single. But being the only woman (other than Ella) in a building full of men like that, I still couldn't quite believe it.

Soon we were in the hotel lobby, and Clint broke off to monitor from a higher vantage point as we went to go check in. No sooner did the front desk attendant look up and notice Iron Man than he pushed a button on his phone and a manager came scurrying out of the office to the side. His step faltered slightly when he noticed everyone, especially Tony, in their combat gear, but he quickly continued on, greeting us profusely.

We were lead to a private elevator that serviced only the top two floors and shown to the suites. When we reached the door outside the first suite, Stephanie stopped short and stiffened. We all went on alert and noticed her gaze on a box sitting in the hallway outside the room.

"Is that from the hotel?" I asked the manager.

"No. And it wasn't here 30 minutes ago when housekeeping left after giving the suites a freshen up."

Stephanie groaned and hissed out, "boxes outside places I'm living are almost always from creepy stalkers or serial killers! Or creepy stalker serial killers!"

I think we all mentally filed that comment away to ask about later. Tony put his mask back on and then walked up to the box. Held out an arm and a scanner popped out and a light flitted across the box.

"It's safe," he confirmed. With that he picked up the note and handed it to Stephanie. She took one look at the envelope and let out a sigh of relief. The outside read "Babe".

It was from Ranger.

"See, it is shit like this that made me call him Batman."

We all chuckled a little, and it turned into full on laughter when it became clear from the expression on her face that she, once again, hadn't meant to say that out loud. I had a feeling we were all going to appreciate that quality. It would make it easier to get to know her; I doubted she was very good at witholding information even if she tried.

Apparently Tony had wrangled two three-bedroom suites for the group. Into the first he put Natasha and Clint, Stephanie, and I. He, Bruce, and Thor went into the second suite. Each bedroom had its own attached bathroom as well as a private sitting area and full closet. The suite itself had a full kitchen, a dining area, full laundry capabilities, and two sitting areas. One of the sitting areas had a piano off to the side and another bathroom attached to it.

One whole wall was windows and sliding doors onto a huge balcony. While I was setting Stephanie's bag in her room, I noticed her walking up to the windows looking out at the view. She was quickly pulled back by Clint as Natasha rushed over and closed the drapes.

"Right," Stephanie muttered to herself. "That was stupid; I know how this works."

Natasha just hooked her arm through Stephanie's and lead her off. "I'm just going to help Steph get settled and make sure she isn't hiding any injuries from us."

"I'm fine," Stephanie protested as they walked into the other room.

Clint turned to me with a grin on his face, "you know they're talking about you, right?"

That gave me pause. I actually had assumed that Natasha was checking Stephanie for injuries and otherwise making sure she was okay. Now that I thought about it, Clint was probably right.

I sidestepped the issue and asked, "so, you know this Ranger guy?"

This brought out a chuckle, "yeah. He's former army special forces. Black ops. Still a mercenary for hire, mostly for the US government. He and his team are badass and I for one am glad they're on our side on this one. We only crossed paths a handful of times, but I can tell you that while they were always willing to do legally gray things, they never did anything they thought was morally wrong."

"When I first met them they were all very withdrawn, you could tell they were only living ghosts of lives. The type that you knew were okay with the idea of not coming back from a mission. It was part of what made them so good at the types of missions they were given. Around the time they started telling stories about her," Clint gestured in the direction Stephanie and Natasha had gone, "you could see a little bit of light come back on inside of them. I don't think they'll ever be whole, but I think she saved them. From what I hear, they consult and offer advice but don't really take up missions any more. I meant what I said earlier. I think every one of them, at least the ones she'll be close with, would die for her because it would kill them if she died."

With that he walked over to the piano and tapped out a few notes. "But, what do I know. Like I said, I only met them a handful of times. Oh, and one last thing. If they were an item right now, there's no way he'd let her be here instead of with him."

I thought about what he'd said. He may have only met the man and his team a few times, but one of the things that made Clint one of the best spies and assassins in the world was his ability to assess situations and read people. The same was true for Natasha. They didn't trust anyone that I'd met before, outside of our team. And if Clint was vouching for these men, then you can bet they were trustworthy.

They'd also both taken to Stephanie shockingly well. Natasha didn't let many people get near her, but she was allowing Stephanie to. We all had finely honed instincts, especially after recent events with SHIELD and we were all gunshy about trusting people. The fact that everyone else was accepting her reassured me that it wasn't just attraction drawing me to her and letting down my guard.

Natasha walked back into the room and looked a Clint, the two exchanging some sort of silent message between themselves. Then Natasha smiled, "couple of bruises and scrapes, but all minor. She'll be right as rain in the morning. She's just taking a quick shower."

We quickly all went about our ways and did the same before gathering in the room again five minutes later. Stephanie was still in the shower, but I was pretty sure that was normal for civilians. Especially females.

There was a knock on the door and I watched as Natasha pulled a gun, holding it at her side before peeking out the peephole and opening the door. When she pulled the door fully open, I recognized Ella from earlier. She stood there with many bags in her arms and said, "Ranger sent me with some supplies, if that's alright?"

Natasha nodded her head and moved to the side. I stepped forward and took the bags from her. "I've got one more stuff down in the car with Tank; I can make it in one trip if one of you can help me." Before I could set the bags down, Clint stepped forward to escort her back down to the car and get the remaining items.

Moments after they left, Tony strode into the suite followed by Bruce and Thor. He was wearing only a robe. I raised my eyebrow at him and he just said, "Hey, your alarm went off in the middle of the night! I rushed out of the tower with my suit assembling around me and forgot to put on clothes."

"That explains why you kept your suit on the whole time. You should have said something, we could have found clothes to fit you at Rangeman." Stephanie had walked back into the room, face clear of makeup and hair wet. She was breathtaking.

Tony just shrugged and said, "I'm fine." He then turned to Natasha and me adding, "Hey Capsicle, Natalie, where'd you get the bags? What's in them?"

Just then, the door opened again admitting Clint and Ella. Stephanie rushed forward, but I beat her to Ella retrieving the bags again. "Oh, Ella, you shouldn't have come out this late. We would have been fine until morning."

"Nonsense, darling, I'm happy to help. Besides, Ranger had Tank drive me, so it really was no bother. I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner though, some of the items were a tad hard to find. Now, I'll just be getting on my way. Call if you need anything and I'll pick it up and have it for you tomorrow."

We all chimed our thanks and she was back out the door in a flash. "That woman is a saint!" Stephanie exclaimed.

We started sorting through the bags and noticed that each person had a bag with their name on it. Except for Stephanie, who was clearly her favorite. Stephanie had three bags and she was squealing with delight as she went through them. She then dashed off to change. We all followed suit then gathered again at the rest of the bags, and pulled out some toiletries and essentials as well as more food.

"If Ella was bringing all of this, then what's in the box that was here when we arrived?" Bruce asked.

Stephanie went over to the table and opened the envelope. Inside was a note that just said, "thought you might need this."

She opened the box and inside was a bag and a smaller box. The bag had in it some military-grade pepper spray on a keychain. Guess that had been missing when he'd gone through her weapons earlier. She set that aside and pulled out the smaller box. Inside was a bunch of ice packs and a pint of Cherry Garcia. Stephanie stared at it for a full minute and then she burst into tears.

Bruce looked startled, like a deer in the headlights and Tony just went awkward. Thor looked pained and reached over and thumped her on the shoulder. Then the three of them grabbed one of the bags of food, muttered that they'd be back the following morning, and hastily went back to their suite.

Natasha gave me a pointed look and gestured toward Stephanie on the couch. Then she and Clint busied themselves putting away supplies and dishing up plates for the four of us. They left plates in the sitting room for Stephanie and I and a spoon for the ice cream then waved, gestured toward the couch again, pantomimed comforting her, and went into their bedroom, shutting their door firmly.

I looked around and realized I was now alone with Stephanie for the first time since we were running away from a bomb. Granted, she was crying, but it was still a momentous occasion. I cautiously lowered myself down onto the couch next to her and slowly reached my arm around her.

As soon as my arm touched her shoulder she curled into me and just started crying harder. I hadn't been in this situation before, so I just went with my instincts and brought my other arm up and pulled her more firmly into me. I ran my hands soothingly up and down her back and made little shushing sounds until she quieted down. I held her like this for a few minutes, breathing in her scent when I realized that she had fallen asleep in my arms. One part of me felt like I was king of the world that I had made her feel so comfortable and safe that she was able to set her worries aside and sleep.

The other part of me was terrified. I had no idea what to do. I didn't know if I should stay there and just let her sleep on me, get up and leave her on the couch to sleep, or get up and carry her into her room to sleep. The last option seemed like it was the best, but I didn't really think I should be alone with her in her bedroom. It just wasn't right- especially since we'd just met that very day. Just sitting there was a similar dilemma- I enjoyed getting to hold her close, but it just didn't feel right. Leaving her on the couch, however, felt kind of callous. I mean, she was obviously upset since she'd just cried herself to sleep.

I was still sitting there contemplating my options when Natasha and Clint's door cracked open a tiny bit. Obviously noticing the silence, they crept out with their dishes. I turned my head and made eye contact with them, showing all of my bewilderment. I mouthed, "help!" and watched Natasha pass her plate to Clint.

She snuck closer and before I could do anything about it, whipped out her phone and took a picture. I didn't want to jostle Stephanie awake, so I shot her a menacing look. Clearly she wasn't concerned though because she just kept tapping and then hit send and sent a smirk to Clint who had rejoined us. One minute later, Thor, Tony, and Bruce were standing there with huge grins. I shot Natasha a stern look then looked around at my teammates and whispered, "she just cried until she fell asleep! What do I do now?!"

"You two are so cute together," Natasha offered.

"Not helping." I gritted out.

"What's wrong? Is the big old Captain afraid of the teeny, tiny girl?" Tony taunted in a whisper.

I threw my head back, closed my eyes, and counted to 10. During that time, I heard more camera phone clicks and realized that now they had pictures making it look like I was asleep too. I let out a breath and turned pleading eyes to Bruce.

He chuckled and said, "you can't leave her like that, she'll be sore in the morning, especially after everything you two went through tonight. Take her into her room and set her on her bed. She'll thank you for it in the morning."

I looked at Natasha who reluctantly nodded having already had her fun, "he's right."

I carefully moved one arm under her legs and moved the shifted the other one on her back to help stabilize her as I picked her up. I didn't fail to notice another camera click coming from Natasha's direction. I just ignored it, goal in mind, as I gently carried her into the bedroom, turned off her lights, and quickly exited the room and shut the door behind me.

I stalked over to Natasha and grabbed her phone, deleting the images. That's right, I'd picked up technology pretty well once I got used to the concept. Natasha rolled her eyes, "Come on Cap, what do you hope to accomplish? I'm a spy. If you think I don't already have those pictures backed up four different ways, you're wrong."

I handed her back her phone and growled at her, "that wasn't nice."

Her lips twitched as she replied, "maybe not, but it sure was fun."

_**Steph's POV**_

I woke up to a soft knocking noise on the door. I looked around and realized I wasn't in my room or anywhere that I remembered sleeping before. Actually, I didn't even remember going to sleep here.

"Steph," a man's voice called, "It's 6am, and you told Ranger we'd be back at the office by 7."

Ugh, morning. I hate morning. Then suddenly, yesterday's events came rushing back to me and I recognized the voice!

"I'll be out in a few minutes, Steve!"

I rushed into the bathroom and took care of business. Then I quickly brushed my teeth, tamed my hair as best I could considering I'd gone to sleep with it wet, and changed into the Rangeman uniform I'd brought with me.

I walked out into the sitting area and there were all six Avengers. It really wasn't some kind of weird dream. Of course, as exciting as that may sound, there was also the fact that I was now both homeless and carless, so that put a damper on things. Thankfully I could smell coffee.

They all looked up at me and offered their various "hello"s and "good morning"s, and I just walked right past them, waving a hand in their general direction. I made a beeline for the coffee machine and poured myself a mug full, fixed it with a bunch of sugar and cream, and then downed it. I poured myself a second cup, fixed it, and then took it with me back into the sitting room with a smile on my face. They were all staring at me in surprise as I said "good morning" in a sunny voice.

"Oooooookkkaaayyy," said Tony, "now we know, coffee first for you."

I nodded and said, "yep, if it is before 10am and I'm awake, you'll want to make sure I've had coffee before you talk to me if at all possible. Unless I'm hungover then it is The Cure all the way."

"The cure?" Bruce enquired.

"Large Coke and large fries from McDonalds. Works every time."

I could see them all mentally processing that.

"I'd try that sometime," commented Tony, "but I think it is no longer possible for me to get hangovers."

Natasha just snorted.

"Okay," I asked, "what's the plan here. Are we packing up and taking this stuff down to the car with us now? Are we coming back for it later?"

"We're coming back for it later," came the reply, this time from Steve.

"Okay, well, let me go grab my shoes and my bag and I'm ready to go when you all are."

"Aren't you going to eat?"

"I'll grab a piece of fruit when we get there, I really can't eat much before I workout."

Steve just handed me a muffin and said, "eat, you didn't eat anything last night."

I shrugged, peeled off the wrapper and started eating it as I walked into my room. I grabbed my shoes and my bag. I stopped back on the couch and sat down to tie my shoes. When I started to get up, I noticed Steve holding out the can of pepper spray that Ranger had sent over.

"Right, good call." I said, while digging out the keys to the SUV. Steve took them from me and carefully strong on the pepper spray leaving me to finish the muffin.

When I finished he said, "you've got a belt on that uniform, why don't you carry your gun on it so you're ready just in case." I nodded in agreement and he pulled it out for me, checked that it was loaded, verified the safety was on, and handed it to me. I settled it into my holster then did the same with my taser (he checked the charge on it first) and cell phone and thanking him as he handed them to me.

I looked up and saw everyone watching us with amused looks.

"What?"

"Nothing, that was just very domestic of you both. In a badass, pepper spray kind of way," said Clint.

"On Asgard it is a sign of great affection to check over someone's weapons before battle and to trust someone to do so for you," added Thor.

I felt myself blush, and Tony said, "aww, look, they even have the same adorable blush."

Looking for something to do, I flicked my phone open and powered it on. We all started walking toward the door and I pulled my rangeman hat on as my phone started beeping incoming message alerts. I just fixed it onto my belt, letting it keep going, as I walked down to the elevator and pushed the button.

I turned around when I realized no one was still with me. They were just staring at me and the phone on my hip which hadn't stopped buzzing or beeping yet. The elevator door opened up and I held it open calling out, "are you coming with me or not?"

They all rushed forward and finally, Natasha looked at me and asked, "how many messages do you have."

"Well, I'm sure I have how ever many are the limit to each for this phone. I'm actually surprised it hasn't just crashed, but then again, it looks like it is a newer model." I sighed and added, "alright, so it works like this. I'm from a neighborhood of Trenton known as The Burg. In the Burg, everyone is raised to do as their told, marry within the Burg, and lead the perfect Burg life. For women that means getting married, not working, and popping out as many kids as possible while ignoring any dalliances on your husbands part."

I glanced around at everyone as we exited the elevator and started walking to the car. They were all circled around me, so I continued on. "I went to college, which was frowned upon and drew all the Burg gossip, and got a business degree. As soon as I graduated, I let my mother bully me into believing I wanted the Burg lifestyle and married the first 'decent' guy who asked. His name was Dickie," I said, breezing through their snorts of laughter and continued, "we were married for about five minutes when I found him cheating on me with Joyce Barnhardt on our dining room table. I threw them out of the house and we had the loudest, most public divorce in the history of the Burg. Again, this drew the Burg gossip."

We paused when we got to the cars. Everyone was constantly surveying the area, but clearly considered the thread level low enough to finish my story. "Things were going okay for me, I had a steady job as a lingerie buyer and I was getting by until the company I was working for got shut down by the FBI for a whole host of tax, embezzlement, etc. etc. I had savings for a while, but when those ran out, I blackmailed my cousin Vinnie into giving me a job at his bail bonds office."

"That's where I met Ranger when Vinnie's office manager, Connie called in a favor to have Ranger train me in how to be a bounty hunter. I still do some bounty hunting for Vinnie on the weekends while training my replacement, Lula. But most of it I do for Rangeman these days. I like it better that way, I have a partner and I tend to get knocked around less now."

I noticed Steve's hands clench into fists at that. Oh well, depending on how long this all took and how long they stuck around he'd probably see it at this point.

"Anyway," I continued, "obviously being a bounty hunter and working for a security company really, really isn't 'Burg'. Plus with all the stalkers and explosions, they love to gossip. Anytime something happens in Trenton, someone in the Burg sees it. When they see it they call someone else, who calls three more people and so on. The story usually gets more ridiculous as it goes. Adding to the mix the fact that you all were quite publically recognizably seen there, and Captain America saved my life and you can bet that 1) my voicemail box and text messages are full of gossip seekers as well as my mother calling to yell at me about embarrassing her and 2) we're on the front page of at least the Trenton newspapers, but probably the New Jersey ones as well."

I finished and there was silence as they all let that sink in. Then I said, "okay, let's get to Rangeman!"

I was surprised when Natasha handed her keys to Tony then took my keys and handed them to Steve. She then got into the back of my SUV, pulling me with her. Steve got in the driver's seat and Clint took the front passenger seat. As Steve started driving, she asked if we could turn down the music, so he switched it off.

"Stephanie, I'm really sorry. I think I did something really dumb."

"Okay…"

"Last night when you started crying and Steve was comforting you, you fell asleep on him on the couch."

I looked up and caught Steve's eyes in the rearview mirror. I was going to apologize, but I could tell from the look that he didn't mind, so I didn't. Then to my surprise, he winked at me and chuckled when I blushed.

Natasha continued, "when I brought Clint and my dishes out to put away, I saw you and it was just so cute that I took some pictures. I sent them to the team, and they came in and we were teasing him a little because we've never seen that side of him and he really didn't know what to do. He got frustrated and closed his eyes to try to calm down and I took some pictures like that so it looked kinda like he was sleeping too. And then, umm, I took some pictures when he picked you up to carry you into your room."

"Alright, I mean, that's not my favorite thing to hear, but I get why you did it, so that's fine."

"Well, that's not all. I also texted them to Lester," Natasha finished with a wince.

"Lester Santos? How do you even have his number?"

"Well, I think you and Cap could be really great together, and I could tell yesterday that he felt the same, so we talked about it some and decided we'd work on it together. When I took the pictures last night I sent them to him as a progress update."

"Okay, I get that you couldn't know this, plus your the Black Widow so there's really nothing I could do to you, but Les is a huge gossip and prankster. Now, he and the rest of the Rangmen will keep all their gossip inside Rangeman, so we're safe as far as that is concerned, but you can bet your ass he's done something dumb with them. And sent them to all of Rangeman with some stupid email and tagline. And I don't just mean Rangeman Trenton, I mean all the Rangeman offices."

"Ouch. I'm really sorry, Steph."

"I know. All the same, I said we were going to the gym early to keep Ranger from killing Les on the mats, and that was mostly a joke because he wouldn't kill him. They're cousins. But, when we get there, I'm going to find out what email he sent. And then in all likelihood, I'm going to kill Lester. So you'll have that to think about."

With that I stared out the window and began plotting my strategy. I could tell Natasha felt bad, so I just reached over, gave her a one armed hug and said, "I'm not going to lie, this is going to be a VERY uncomfortable day around the office. Especially for Steve and I. But, you couldn't have known, so seriously, don't worry about it."

We pulled up to the Rangeman garage and I fobbed my way in and instructed Steve to stop after he'd pulled forward a bit so I could fob the next SUV in. Then we all got into the elevator together and stopped at 5 first. I made a beeline for Hal's desk and motioned for the others to follow me. I smiled at him sweetly and said, "Good morning, Hal, how are you today?"

He looked at me nervously, then at the Avengers, then back at me. "Good Steph, what's going on?"

"Could you do me a quick favor and go see who is on Bomber duty today? I don't want to distract whoever is on monitors with these guys and they're following me around endlessly right now?"

"Sure" he stammered out then headed off.

As soon as he rounded the corner, I sat in his chair and opened up his email, Natasha and Steve right behind me. Clint clued the others in and then they were all crowded around me, except for Clint who was keeping a lookout.

I clicked on an email from Lester that's subject read, "This Time Beautiful's Going for An Upgrade". Inside the in huge letters he wrote "From Batman to Captain America: No more fake superheroes for our Bombshell Bounty Hunter!" Then he'd made a sort of collage out of the pictures Natasha had sent him and included them full-sized as well as attached individually. I noted the to field had all of the various Rangeman offices with a groan. I could feel the tension coming off Steve. Natasha reached out and I just said, "it's okay, but don't touch me right now, there's something I have to do."

With that I stalked over to the stairs and slammed the door open. I exited on the third floor and walked straight to the gym. As I walked in, followed by the others, the place went deadly silent. Lester and Ranger stopped their sparring match on the mats and looked over. I saw Lester gulp and pale when he saw my face. "Morning, Beautiful!" he tried, with a false sense of cheer that he clearly wasn't feeling.

I didn't respond, just strode over to the mats and pointed at Ranger and then motioned for him to leave the ring. I then stopped at an empty chair next to it and pulled off my utility belt. I looked at the bracelet and went ahead and took it off, handing it to Steve for safe keeping. "Uh, Stephanie" he started, and I just glared at him and he shut up. Smart man. I took my CAT boots off and then pulled off my shirt leaving myself in a sports bra with a cami over it. Steve sucked in a breath.

I climbed into the ring and took up a fighting stance and began circling Lester. I waited until he charged and used his weight to flip him before bouncing back out of his reach. Then I went into my zone. I don't know that I'd ever fully made it here before, but I was motivated in that moment. And let me tell you, I kicked ass. After a few trips to the ground, he wasn't holding back any more. Finally Lester was on the ground after one particularly vicious knee had gotten him in his nuts and Tank was hauling me away and off the mats. "Alright, Little Girl, he's had enough."

I just scoffed before going over to a treadmill and turning it on and starting to run. I watched Bobby approach the mat to check on Lester and called out, "don't worry, I didn't break anything. I am sorry though, you guys always wear a cup when you fight me and I didn't know he wasn't wearing one!"

I heard Tony laugh at that, and then was surprised when Clint climbed onto the treadmill on one side of me and started running. Ranger climbed onto the one on the opposite side of me. I kept watching in the mirror as Steve said something to Natasha. He came over and he reached my bracelet out to me. "Thanks, I said."

"Anytime," he said with a nod. Then he started walking back before turning around with a smile and calling out, "nice work, by the way."

Ranger was silent through the whole exchange. Finally he said, "you think I'm going to be angry or it is going to be awkward. I'm not angry. We both agreed you should move on and I couldn't give you what you need." I nodded, and he continued, "and it will only be awkward if you let it. Please don't let it be awkward again. I thought we were past that and I had my best friend back."

I looked over at the plea in his eyes and I nodded my head. "Okay, Batman," I said with a grin at his shocked laugh, "too soon? And for the record nothing happened. I saw the ice cream you sent and couldn't stay in denial land any more so I started crying. He comforted me and I fell asleep on him. Natasha took pictures, and he carried me into the bedroom so I didn't wake up with a crick in my neck from sleeping on the couch. That's it."

"I believe you."

"Good."

Clint had been silent the whole time, taking in the exchange. Then he said, "I know you're upset and running can help, but I think you're going to want to watch this. You know how you said that Natasha was Black Widow so it's not like there's anything you can do to her anyway?"

"Yeah."

"Well, Cap's a little… old fashion. And he's pissed off because he's worried about your reputation."

I noticed Ranger's lips twitch at that. I just nodded and said, "okay…"

"Cap wouldn't hit most women unless they attacked him, and even then he'd subdue if at all possible. But Natasha's one of the few people in the world he can spar with and have anything even approaching a fair fight. Except for Thor. And probably the Hulk, but we haven't tried that yet."

That's when looked further back in the mirror and noticed that both Steve and Nat were warming up on the mats. I slowly turned my pace down for a quick cool down then turned off the machine and walked over toward the mats with interest, putting my bracelet back on as I went.

I stared in fascination as they fought. It was pure speed and efficiency on Steve's part with a dash of elegance, almost like dancing thrown in on Natasha's end. I felt Clint wince a little at one particularly hard hit by Steve, and looked over to see if he felt like someone needed to intervene, but he just said, "she's fine, she can take this and more. She actually _has_ fought the Hulk."

The fight went on for an hour, with every Rangeman who wasn't on monitor duty or out of town stopping in to watch some or all of it, before Steve finally made her tap out. Or maybe it was let her tap out. They both collapsed on the mats exhausted and I heard Natasha ask, "we good?"

"Yep," was Steve's reply.

"Steph, we good?!" she called out to me.

I climbed into the ring and offered her a hand up and a smile, "Yeah, Nat, we're good."

She grabbed my hand and let me help her to her feet. She smiled at me and then with a wink we reached our hands out to Steve in unison. He pretended to let us help him up then gave Natasha a playful shove and winked at me before climbing out of the ring.

As Natasha and I climbed down, Steve reached up a hand to helping me this time. He held onto my hand and inspected it and then the other. They were a little bruised but not much since I didn't really punch much. It wasn't my best move. "You should tape your hands next time," he said, looking me in the eye. "And we need to work on your punches."

"Do a lot of boxing? Because I'm pretty sure I'm hopeless on that front. Many have tried to fix it before, so now I just do other things instead."

The other Avengers scoffed, and Steve smiled, "yeah, I box some. Don't worry, you're not hopeless."

Natasha added, "you did pretty well with Lester, but I still have a lot of work to do with you."

I turned to her, "yeah, about that. After what I just saw, I'm not so sure that's a good idea."

"It's a great idea," Natasha and Steve said at the same time.

"Fine, but if you kill me, I'm not going to be happy about it."

She laughed and said, "deal. We'll start tomorrow though, okay, I'm suddenly feeling a little tired this morning."

* * *

**A/N:** So... what do you think? BTW, Chapter 4 is written, just waiting for me to feel compelled to post it. Feel free to compel me!


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: **The characters and things you recognize in this story don't belong to me. They belong to Marvel and Janet Evanovich. I'm pretty sure you'll recognize which is which. Mistakes belong to me.

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Chapter 4

_**Steph's POV**_

As I left the locker room after cleaning up for the day, my eyes immediately landed on Lester standing in the hallway waiting for me. I turned my head and saw Steve leaning up against a wall, shield affixed to his back again, trying to look casual.

"I'm fine, Lester would never do anything to hurt me."

"Who said I'm here for you? Maybe I'm concerned you'll beat Lester up again."

Lester and I both laughed at that, and Lester just waved Steve over to join us as we started walking up to five.

"I want to apologize to you both, I shouldn't have shared those pictures that way. I was excited when I got them, but that's no excuse. I hope you still can trust me, Beautiful."

I reached over and gave Lester a quick, one-armed hug. "You're fine, I still trust you Les. I always knew you were a gossip anyway."

Lester looked back at Steve who was trailing behind us and he nodded adding, "If Stephanie's fine with it, then we're fine."

"Thanks." Then Lester grinned, "I do have to say though, Beautiful, I'm proud of you. That's the best any of us have ever seen you fight. I don't think it was worth that last kick, but other than that I'm kinda glad it happened."

I narrowed my eyes at him and he held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, but it was some seriously good fighting. Now, to make it up to you, how about we see if we can partner today? Breakfast and lunch are on me! Anything you want!"

I rolled my eyes and said, "Darn right they are! I'll talk to Ranger, see what I can do."

Lester opened the door and held it for me, then let Steve through too asking as he passed, "you coming with us?"

"It's up to Steph, but Nat and I talked and we're hoping to join you for the day. Actually, I know we said only 2 Avengers were required, but I think Clint and Thor want to come too, if you'll let them." The last part was addressed to me.

I looked over at Les who nodded his assent, so I shrugged, "sure, but you guys have to do what we say. Two of you can ride in our SUV with us, but if we get any skips, you'll have to ride in the second car."

Steve agreed and went off to tell the others, and Lester went to grab any files that we already had. I walked down to Ranger's office and knocked on the open doorway.

"Babe."

"Hey, Boss," I said with a grin. Ranger didn't really like when I called him that. "Lester wants to make the whole picture thing up to me today, and we were wondering if we could switch to be partnered together for the day?"

"Already done. Who've you got?"

Lester walked in with a file in his hands, he gave it to Ranger, and I scooted around to read over Ranger's shoulder.

"Oh, right, Buster. Couldn't find a lot on him through the search programs, so we'll probably need to run some surveillance on him before we come up with a plan."

Steve, Natasha, Clint, and Thor had joined us, taking seats on the couch and extra chairs in the office. They were quietly listening with interest.

"Babe, this says possession with intent to distribute but," he looked at Lester who was already nodding in agreement, "I think this guy is a little higher up the food chain. I'm thinking supplier. Stop by the Bonds Office and see if they have any more files, then go ahead and pick up any easy ones if there are any. Then run surveillance and see what you can get on Buster. You two are not to attempt an apprehension without a full team, got it? We'll either do a take down for him, or a distraction. It depends on your intel."

I glanced over at Steve. I knew distraction was likely, and I was pretty sure he wouldn't like it if we went that route. Something tells me his old fashioned side might not appreciate that. "No problem. Though, if we go the distraction route, I'm going to need an outfit."

Ranger nodded then looked at the four Avengers sitting in his office. "Who is going with you today?"

"I know we agreed on two, but if it's alright with you, these four would all like to join in today."

"Sure. Feel free to supply them anything they need. Call if you run into Buster and need backup. Don't get shot."

I laughed at the reversal of our customary farewell and responded, "Don't go crazy."

With that I lead the way out of the office and down to the garage level before stepping into the room next to the gun range. Lester and I walked over to the Kevlar vests and grabbed one each before strapping them on. "Anyone else want one?"

Natasha and Clint stepped forward. Since Natasha and I were about the same size, I handed her one of my spares while Lester helped Clint find one the right size for him. Steve and Thor declined.

Ella had clearly provided everyone with some clothing options here as well. Steve and Thor were in jeans and tshirts, Steve with a leather jacket that fit him perfectly over it. Nat and Clint, however, had chosen combat gear. Those two were practically in Rangeman uniforms, all they were missing was the logo. Plus you know, Natasha had her bites strapped on and Clint was wearing a bow and arrow.

Then we stepped over to the weapons. Lester and I both already had our primary pieces on us, but since we were going to be in gang territory asking questions about a probable drug supplier, we strapped on some more. I grabbed myself a clutch piece and put it in an ankle holster under my pants. Then I strapped on a couple knives.

Everyone was looking around the room in interest.

"Anyone need anything?" Lester offered.

They all just shook their heads- they'd brought their full armories with them last night and then here with them this morning. I suppose they wouldn't be very good guards otherwise.

We headed over to the SUVs and Lester and I climbed into his with Steve and Natasha in the back seat. Clint and Thor got into the other and we headed off.

"Okay, first stop is Tasty Pastry for doughnuts! We'll get whatever everyone wants and an extra box to take with us to the Bail Bonds office. I feel like I should apologize or warn you in advance about Connie and Lula, but I don't even know how to describe it."

So that was what we did. When we pulled up to the Bonds Office, we got out and left Clint and Thor in their car, watching over ours. Steve was carrying the doughnuts and Lester held the door open. I walked in and Lula looked up and said, "Skinny ass white girl, don't you come in here without doughnuts. You didn't return any of my calls last night! If you think…" she trailed off as she saw Natasha follow me in. Natasha's lips twitched as she asked, "skinny ass white girl?"

Lula stared for a second and said, "yeah, well, you should know seeing as you're one too."

Natasha cocked an eyebrow at this but didn't say anything. At that point Lester stepped in with Steve behind him and Connie and Lula just stared with their mouths hanging open. Maybe this was going to be easier than I thought. I directed Steve to put the doughnuts down on Connie's desk. Then I walked over to the stack of folders in front of her and flipped through them all, pulling out the ones for Rangeman. I smiled and waved at them both and then we walked back out to the car.

We climbed back in, Lester and I laughing hysterically, and Lester said, "huh, I've never seen that before. We'll have to keep that in mind as a Lula-defence mechanism. Who knows if it will work a second time though."

"Maybe not with Steve, but we could take Thor in next time," came my reply. At that Lester turned and gave me a fist bump and we started going through our new files, passing them back and forth.

"Okay, we're going to need to do research on most of these before we take them on, so they won't be this morning. But I think we should go after this guy, Alec Meigs, now. He's in the Rangeman stack because of the high bond and the fact that it's assault with a deadly. If you look at the case, the deadly was a baseball bat and he so drunk that he thought the man he was attacking was a ghost. Not too dangerous. Plus, it's early and he's probably still hung over."

Lester nodded his agreement and I gave him the address and off we went. When we got there, I told Steve and Natasha to wait in the car as Lester and I got out. I went to the front door and Lester went around the back. After waiting until Lester was sure to be in place I rang the doorbell and started banging on the door.

Normally what happens here is: they come to the door, I introduce myself and explain that I need to take them in to court to reschedule their appointment, and then they run out the back door right into Lester's waiting arms. Unfortunately luck wasn't on my side that morning as it seemed Alec was as much of a morning person as I was and similarly not hung over.

I started banging on the door again yelling, "Bond enforcement" again when it suddenly swung open and I caught a movement in the corner of my eye. A baseball bat. I ducked down to dodge the blow and before any of our backup could clear the curb running toward the front door, I'd pulled my taser and he was down for the count. I called out to Lester and he came jogging back around the house as I finished restraining Alec.

Lester and I dragged him up and headed back toward the SUV, and Thor, Clint, Steve, and Natasha were just standing there, arms crossed, leaning against the cars. Lester looked over at me and said, "what'd I miss?"

"Baseball bat."

"He get you?"

"Of course not."

"Okay."

We finally reached the sidewalk and marched him straight to our SUV and shackled him into the back seat. Lester looked at the wheel again, and we drove off leaving four Avengers standing at the curb. I watched in my mirror as they scrambled into their car and quickly caught up to us.

"So, what do you think they're talking about right now?" I asked.

Lester sarcastically replied, "Beautiful, I have no idea."

"I don't know what they were thinking was going to happen when we went after a skip," I muttered, mostly to myself.

"Thinking about and seeing are two very different things. And I for one thought if anything happened, it'd be inside the house or out back, so they wouldn't have to see it. I've been on Bomber duty before, so I have some understanding of what it feels like to watch some guy who has you outweighed by at least 80 pounds take a swing at you and know that I'm too far away to keep it from landing no matter how fast I move. I'm just glad for his sake that he didn't land the hit. He would have been drinking out of a straw for months. And then it would have been Rangeman's turn."

We pulled up to the Police Station, ditched our extra weapons under our seats, and I grabbed our right to apprehend paperwork. Then we went around back and unshackled Alec and pulled him out of the SUV. I waved the others off when they started to get out of the second SUV. Clint rolled his window down and I said, "just give us five minutes. If it's longer than that, you can come in, but nothing is going to happen. Oh! And you should probably leave your extra weapons in the car if you do come in."

When we got to booking, they were backed up. We had to wait five minutes to even get started on the process. I was pretty sure there was a car full of superheroes who were feeling a little iffy about my safety at the moment and weren't going to wait patiently for too much longer. I was trying to speed the officer along in writing up our body receipt when from behind me I heard, "Congratulations on bringing in one guy without causing a scene, Cupcake."

Lester shifted closer to me, and neither of us turned around.

"Oh, that's sweet, Santos. How many of you is she fucking now. I hear Ranger got bored and tossed her aside. Though word is that she went to a hotel and spent the night with the Avengers last night, so maybe she picked up a few tricks."

I reached back and grabbed Lester before he could make a move. I pulled him forward and pointed at the body receipt murmuring an "I got this". I was silently praying that Steve and the others hadn't come in yet as I turned around. I looked past Joe and saw that I really didn't have a shred of luck on my side this morning. Steve was behind Joe, close enough to hear what he'd said and looking pissed. Natasha had a hand across his chest, restraining him. For now.

I sighed and looked at Joe. He looked like he'd been on a marathon bender last night and hadn't bothered to take a shower this morning.

"Whether you believe it or not, I'm not sleeping with any of them," I replied mildly, "what do you want, Joe?"

"When are you going to quit this stupid job, come back home, and marry me?"

"I'm not planning on quitting my job anytime soon, but I can say with certainty that I will never marry you, Joe. You need to move on."

Joe stepped forward and grabbed onto my shoulder. "Come on, Cupcake. You've had your fun but you're a disaster at this. Those men only keep you around for convenience sake and because they're waiting to take turns with you. Look at you, you look like a little girl playing dress up."

"Let. me. go."

Instead of doing so, Joe grabbed onto my other shoulder with his second hand and started shaking me.

"I'm pretty sure the lady said for you to let her go. You need to do that now," commanded Steve.

I looked around the room and noticed all the cops that had gathered around, hands down by their sides, near their weapons. This could get really ugly, really fast.

"Unhand Lady Stephanie at once!" boomed Thor's voice.

"Oh good, gang's all here," I thought to myself.

Joe opened his mouth to spew some more vile filth, I'm sure, when I heard from right next to me, "Detective Morelli, let her go and get your ass in my office right now!" It was Joe's captain, thank goodness.

Joe's jaw twitched and he squeezed me extra hard giving me one last shake before letting me go and stalking away.

I turned around and looked at Lester. "Do you have that body receipt?"

He nodded, "Yep. But you're going to go over there with Robin, and you're going to file a report before we leave."

I didn't really want to cause any problems with Joe. I just wanted him to leave me alone. But even I had to admit that he wasn't making any progress on doing so over the last several months. I blew out a breath and looked at Robin who had walked up next to me and nodded my head.

I followed her over to her desk, sat down and filled out the report. The Avengers all gave their statements, even though the whole thing was on cameras since it happened in the station and there were a bunch of cops who witnessed it as well. I started to stand up to leave, but Steve gently placed a hand on my shoulder, careful not to press down where Joe's hands had been, keeping me sitting and quietly said, "roll up your sleeves."

I did and heard the collective intake of breath that happened all around me. I looked from side to side, "Yep, bruising already. That jackass. Does he think that's helping his case any?" I thought to myself. Thankful that for once it seemed, I was keeping my thoughts inside my head. Robin took pictures, added them to her report, and we were finally done.

I could feel the tension in my body as well as rippling off of everyone else as we walked through the station and headed toward the SUVs.

"Just give us five minutes" Clint said in an overly high-pitched, mocking voice.

I turned and looked at him and then just burst out laughing. Slowly the tension eased all around us, and a couple chuckles joined mine. "Hey, it could have happened that way! How was I supposed to know the ex from hell was on shift today?"

We got back to the cars and went back to our original groups from this morning. I instructed Lester to swing by Pinos for take out then drive toward Buster's neighborhood for surveillance. He agreed as long as I called Ranger right then. I first placed the call in to Pinos for the order, then I dialed Ranger's number. My phone was hooked up to the SUV's bluetooth, so after one ring the vehicle was filled with Ranger's voice barking out, "report!"

I sighed and informed him he was on speakerphone before saying, "it isn't a big deal. We got one of the new skips without any real problem, took him into the station, and ran into Morelli. Ended up pressing charges against him, and now we're on our way to pick up some lunch and run surveillance on Buster and ask around about him."

"Are you alright?"

"Couple of bruises where he grabbed me, but I'm fine. He's probably on suspension now, so hopefully he'll learn his lesson."

"Okay, my office for another report when you get back," he said then disconnected.

"Well, that went better than I expected."

Lester pulled to the curb outside Pinos and dashed inside to grab our order. He stopped at the back SUV and gave them their subs and was giving them some instructions for surveillance. I'd imagine Clint didn't need them, but also understood why Lester felt the need to make sure we were all on the same page.

"So," Natasha piped up from the backseat breaking the albeit comfortable silence, "almost get your head taken off by a baseball bat, taze a guy, and get assaulted by an ex in a police station. Is this a typical day for you?"

"Well, the assault by an ex part was new, so congratulations on getting to be there for that first, but otherwise… it isn't atypical, that's for sure."

"Interesting, sounds like you and Steph may have some shared life experiences, Cap."

Steve gave a good hearted chuckle and said, "well, similar at least. I doubt Stephanie has ever fought aliens or crazy Nazi splinter groups."

"Not that I know of, nope. But who knows, maybe someday!"

They both groaned at my reply. Then Steve asked the question I'd been hoping all day he wouldn't ask, "by the way, what's a distraction?"

This time I groaned. I turned around and looked him in the eye. "You're not going to like this and it is possible that we won't have to go that route, so why don't we just ignore it for now?" When he just held my gaze steadily I sighed, "some of these guys are really bad and they are very disinterested in going back to jail. They know they've skipped court and that we're going to be after them, so they bring guards with them everywhere and turn their homes into fortresses. One of our options is a full-scale take down where we storm wherever they're staying or, if we can't find where they're staying, we storm wherever they are. That winds up being high risk for the team as well as for innocent bystanders"

Steve nodded and I looked over at Natasha. I could tell she knew where this was going. "Our other option, and the route we go more often if we can these days, is a distraction. We find out what bar or club they're going to be at, switch some of the staff with our men, and send a few more men in as customers. Then we have a full team outside waiting. I go in, dressed up however we find out his tastes run, and lure him out into the parking lot. As soon as we step outside, the guys grab him. It is the much safer option. We've done dozens of these."

Steve held my gaze for several seconds then nodded his head in acceptance, "makes sense to me."

I looked at him in surprise and Natasha piped up, "Steve's all about reducing potential for civilian casualties and he's a military strategist. There's a reason that type of mission has been around for longer than Steve. Plus, all those guys care about you, so if they keep sending you in, they must be reasonably sure they can keep you safe and you must be good at it."

_**Steve's POV**_

Everything Natasha said was true, I accepted that distractions, as the Rangeman team called them, were good strategy, and if Stephanie had done that many, they were probably pretty good at keeping her safe. Was I wild about the idea using Stephanie specifically? No. Would I insist on being there if they ran one tonight? Yes.

But I wasn't going to tell Stephanie what to do or throw a fit, which seemed to surprise her. If that's what she's used to from the men in her life, she's going to be surprised. She'd proven today that she was pretty good at taking care of herself. And with our time here, I knew Natasha and I would work with her on that some more. And if our relationship expanded the way I'll admit I was hoping it would, I wasn't planning to start trying to control her then either. My role for as long as she'd let me would be to stand right next to her.

We spent a couple hours going around Buster's neighborhood, looking for him, and talking to Lester and Stephanie's informants. We weren't able to find out anything more than where Buster would likely be tonight. At a club in downtown Trenton. We headed back to the office and Stephanie went directly into a meeting with Ranger.

Natasha, Clint, Thor, and I found Tony and Bruce and caught them up on the day's crazy events. Tony let us know that the house wasn't quite ready yet, so we'd be staying at the hotel for another couple nights, which was fine. Stephanie walked in holding garment bags, a box of shoes, and another duffle as Tony was saying that and asked if we wouldn't mind heading back there for a few hours before coming back in. I tried to take the things for her, but she wouldn't let me.

We drove back to the hotel and all gathered in the larger sitting room of our suite and Stephanie quickly went and stashed her stuff in her room. She came back out and got waters for everyone before sitting down and explaining what was going to happen tonight. She finished by saying that she had more than enough backup from Rangeman, but we were all welcome to join if we wanted. Everyone but Bruce decided to go, figuring that if things got too tense, he didn't want to risk the Other Guy being let loose on a packed club full of people.

There was a quick knock on the suite door then a second later, in strode Pepper Potts with her arms full of takeout bags. Tony quickly got up, took the bags, and gave her a kiss. Then she went around giving the rest of us hugs and asking how we were. When she finished she strode over to Stephanie and introduced herself, pulling Stephanie into a hug when she stuck out her hand for a handshake.

We all ate amicably chatting and telling stories while relaxing a bit and catching Pepper up. Pepper asked about the skip Steph had brought in today and she explained that if he had more collateral available to him, and he'd been quick about it, he could have been bonded out again already today. And, if her Cousin Vinnie was the one who bonded him out again, he could very well wind up on Rangeman's radar again in a few weeks if he missed his next court date. When we were done, Pepper told us to clear the plates and then snagged Natasha and Stephanie, dragging them into the bedroom claiming it was time to get ready the night.

I glanced at my watch and saw that we weren't due back at Rangeman for three hours so that seemed early to me. Tony noticed and chuckled saying, "don't ask."

Two and a half hours later, Stephanie's bedroom door opened and out walked Natasha and Pepper. They were dressed to kill and I had a feeling, based on Stephanie's apprehension when I'd looked at the garment bags earlier, that she was going to be even more over the top. And that she was concerned about my reaction. My thoughts were confirmed when Natasha looked me dead in the eye and smirked then said, "we were able to cover her bruises… not that anyone is going to be looking at her shoulders."

Stephanie walked out and I think my heart skipped a beat. She was wearing what would, I suppose, technically be called a dress. It had thin straps and a neckline that plunged all the way down to her belly button. The bottom of the dress was tight and didn't really cover anything more than was required by law. The side panels appeared to be mesh, and when she turned around to grab her purse then shut her bedroom door I saw that it was backless all the way down to the bottom of the small of her back. My glance slid down her legs and I noticed that she was wearing heels that had to be at least five inches tall. How could she walk in those? I looked back up at her beautiful face and could see that she actually looked apprehensive.

Everyone murmured her that she looked nice and they'd meet us down in the car before rushing out the door. Bruce did the same saying he'd see us tomorrow and went back to his suite. When the door finally shut behind him, I stepped closer to where she was staring at the floor. I put my finger under her chin and tilted her face up until she looked me in the eye.

"Hey, pretty lady, what's wrong? I don't think a dame who puts on a dress like this is likely to be shy, so what's going on?" I asked her.

"I guess I'm worried about what you think of 'a dame who puts on a dress like this'. I know you're kind of old fashioned and, well, this dress is definitely not."

Without hesitating I replied, "I think she's brave, and strong, and courageous. I'm blown away by the fact that she's willing to go out, dressed like this, and draw the attention of a violent man to get him off the streets and make sure that no innocent people get hurt." I watched the light come back in her eyes as I spoke. My voice dropped a little lower as I added, "And I think she's gorgeous and I wish she was going out dancing with me instead of working."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. You could dress like this every day just for fun and I wouldn't think any less of you. It seems unreal to me that we only met about 24 hours ago. I feel like I've gotten to know you a lot already, and I can't wait to get to know you more."

I dropped a gentle, barely there kiss on her lips and looked in her eyes willing her to understand that I was hoping there would be many more to come. Then I pressed another on the top of her head and stepped back, holding my hand out to her. "Now come on, you have a job to do and the others will only give us a harder time the longer we leave them waiting."

She hesitated for a minute, and when I looked at her in question she said, "they're going to put a wire on me so they can hear what's going on, and they'll probably give you an ear piece. I'm going to have to say some things to this guy that might make you uncomfortable."

"Thanks for the warning; it'll be fine." I said, before wiggling the fingers of my outstretched hand at her.

I was relieved when she smiled up at me and grabbed my hand and we walked out to the elevator. "You know what I don't understand about your outfit? One, those shoes have got to be uncomfortable. And two, aren't you going to be cold?"

She gave a chuckle, "yes, well, I think you'll find that very little about modern women's fashion is practical. You get used to the shoes though, I wear heels most of the time when I'm not working. Or at least I did before they all exploded. Now, maybe not this high, but close."

"I think I'll take your word on getting used to the shoes," I smiled. I looked down at our hands as we approached street level and said, "if we walk out like this, they're definitely going to talk."

She squeezed my hand with hers and responded, "if you're okay with it, I say let them talk."

I squeezed her hand in response and didn't let go. As the elevator doors opened, I could see everyone looking concerned and talking animatedly among themselves in the lobby. Pepper looked up, saw us, and smiled wide causing everyone else to turn around and grin too.

Tony started in with, "what took you two long? Hope you weren't doing anything I wouldn't do." And Stephanie and I just kept walking right on past them and out to the SUVs. She handed me the car keys as I helped her into the passenger side of one of the SUVs. Natasha and Clint got in with us, leaving Tony to drive himself, Pepper, and Thor in the other.

"Good talk?" Natasha asked.

Stephanie just hummed in the affirmative but seemed lost in thought. After a few minutes she said, "sorry, I've been to this club before, I was just thinking about the layout and how we'll probably set this up. Remind me to take the pepper spray off the keychain and put it in my purse when we get there, okay? I have a weird feeling about tonight."

"A weird feeling?" asked Clint.

"Yeah, I have what I jokingly refer to with the guys as my 'spidey sense'. It often gives me some kind of warning before something bad happens. It actually went off before I unlocked my car last night and triggered the bomb, but I figured it was just off because of the adrenaline from the apartment bomb."

"Is this spidey sense telling you anything in particular?" he asked.

"No, unfortunately not. It isn't even all that strong right now, it is just enough to put me on edge a little. I'm sure it'll be fine."

We all shifted a little uncomfortably at that, not wanting to tell her not to do the job, but all with a healthy respect for instincts. Instincts often told you something that you knew but just couldn't bring to the forefront of your mind.

"Look, I'll mention it to Ranger and ask him to put a few more people than usual on the team tonight."

We pulled up to Rangeman, and Stephanie was still deep in thought. I had to tap her on the shoulder from outside the her door to get her attention so she'd get out. As we walked through the garage, I handed her the pepper spray and she slid it into her purse.

Clint chuckled and said, "again with the pepper spray, you two."

We piled into the elevator and she gave a little finger wave to the camera again as we rode up. When we got to the second floor, she told us to go ahead and head into the conference room and she'd be back down as soon as she grabbed some files from the office.

Natasha, Clint, and I just exchanged glances, let the others off, and stayed with her. Steph just rolled her eyes and said to me, "this is a secure building, nothing is going to happen to me in it".

"Humor us".

The elevator doors opened and Stephanie was greeted with whistles and lots of "Looking good, Bomber!"

I watched her make her way around the floor saying hi to all the men. I turned my head slightly as Ranger walked up to me before giving my attention back to Stephanie and the room.

"Heard you were ready to take on a cop in the middle of a cop shop today."

I nodded, "If it came down to it. And we were only seconds away from me deciding we were at that point. He was hurting her."

"Gonna have to be careful about things like that. She'd rather take the couple of bruises I hear she got waiting for a cop to step in than to have you wind up in prison for assaulting an officer."

I shrugged noncommittally.

"For the record, he's been suspended. He's not a cop right now." I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, standing at parade rest. "I pushed and he has to go to alcohol counseling and anger management classes out of state before he comes back to work. Heard he might get sent on a long out-of-state task force on his way back."

We stood there in silence for a couple minutes, watching Stephanie finish up her rounds.

"You know, it's interesting," Ranger said, "this is a tradition of sorts. I think she might even have an order. All the men make sure to be on the floor when she arrives and she makes her rounds greeting them all in her own way. She's still being friendly with all of them tonight, but she's different. A little less casual flirting than she usually does, even though they all know it never means anything. Almost like she's giving off hands-off vibes and changing up her routine for a reason. Wonder what would cause that."

I didn't say anything, simply watched her wind her way back around toward us.

Ranger chuckled, "Captain Rogers, you, I like. You'd be good for her. If you were interested, that is. For the record, I usually get a great big hug and a nice long kiss on the cheek."

We watched as Stephanie came up to Ranger's side. She gave him a one-armed hug and shoved him in the shoulder playfully with a "hey, Ranger." At this, I heard Clint and Natasha who had been standing next to me and heard everything Ranger said bark out laughs. I smiled wide and Stephanie looked at the us in surprise. "What?" She asked.

"Nothing," hurried Natasha. "Barton just pinched me and it tickled."

Stephanie gave them a strange look then walked over to her desk, this time we followed her.

Ranger noticed us continuing to stick close to her and asked, "Babe, what's going on?"

She let out a sigh, and said, "it's nothing, my spidey sense has been buzzing for the past hour or so. I made the mistake of mentioning it to these guys and they refused to wait on the second floor."

Ranger nodded then called out, "those on the distraction tonight, conference room, now!" About half the room emptied out and he looked at those remaining. "I know you're all of shift in an hour, so I'm going to call in some people who are off unless any of you would rather stay late for this."

"I wish you wouldn't make them do that," came Steph's distracted response.

"Steph, they know it is 100% voluntary. They actually fight for the chance to be on a distraction shift when we have one scheduled out far enough in advance. They wouldn't have agreed if they hadn't wanted to, or if they were too tired to do it right. Found what you're looking for yet?"

"Nope. Not quite sure what it is. I think maybe the club?" she looked up. "Where'd everyone go?"

"Down to the conference room, Hector's bringing an extra laptop for you, grab your notes and let's go."

The next two hours were spent going over the plan, the suspect, and his known associates on repeat. Everyone got their say in areas of concern and the set-up. Rangeman set up everything the way they usually did and then we supplemented. After being reassured that Ram, who he'd seen in action before, was on sniper duty, Clinton agreed to give up his perch and be on the inside with Natasha. Tony and Pepper would also be going in as a unit.

Thor and Tank would be on the door acting as bouncers. I would be in the van with Ranger and Hector monitoring the wire and the video feeds that were available. Two men had already gone in as bartenders earlier that night. The case with Tony's suit would be on the roof with Ram as would Thor's hammer in case they needed to be summoned. I would have my shield with me in the van.

We all headed down to the garage and started getting into cars. There was another round of passing Stephanie around that went similarly to upstairs earlier. I noticed Ranger's lips twitching again, but he didn't say anything this time. Natasha, on the other hand, smirked at me. Before we got into the last SUV, Steph told everyone to hold on and held her hand out to Ranger. "Wire," was all she said. He handed it to her and she climbed into the backseat of the SUV alone. A few seconds later, the door opened and she said, okay, you can come in now. This time her voice was in our headsets as well. Guess she put the wire on. I could only imagine where she'd stashed it, so I guess that explained the privacy of the SUV.

On our way over we heard as each team got in place. Finally we pulled to the curb a couple blocks away and Stephanie got out. We watched as she walked to the club and Tank and Thor let her in. We sat in the back of the van in silence, listening through Stephanie's mic, watching the cameras at the entrance and on each of the bartenders. It seemed like Hector was also running some kind of extra computer on the side and Ranger explained that they were trying to get the computer to match up any faces from any of Stephanie's active or previous files. We were all still in the dark about what her Spidey Sense was trying to tell her.

I straightened up as I heard Stephanie say, "there he is. Incoming"

I couldn't see Stephanie yet on the monitor, but I could see Buster approach one of the bartenders, Hal. Hal purposely delayed a little with another order to give Stephanie a little more time to get into place. I watched on the monitor as she pressed herself against Buster under the guise of trying to get the bartender's attention giving a very convincing wobble on her heels at the contact.

She turned to Buster and said, "whoops, sorry about that! Man it is crowded in here tonight! My name is Carlee, with two e's, what's your name?" She stuck her hand out toward him.

"That's quite alright. Name's Buster. What's a pretty little thing like you doing up here by yourself?"

"Online date a few blocks down. I showed up and noticed he looked nothing like his profile, so I ditched him, hopped in a cab and asked him to take me to the closest place he knew of where I could get some drinks and have a good time. He brought me here and now I'm trying to get the drink so I can find someone to start having a good time with."

She looked him up and down as she finished that statement. He grinned at her, "tell you what, Sugar, why don't I buy you that drink and you can see if I'm someone you'd want to have a good time with? I can already tell I'd be happy to have a good time with you."

Stephanie giggled and nodded her head. They both turned back to the bar where Hal was standing waiting for their order. Buster waited for Stephanie to order and when she said, "Jack & coke" he nodded and told the bartender to make it two doubles.

"Shit," Ranger mumbled under his breath.

"What's the problem?" I asked.

Ranger just reached for the all-page microphone and said into everyone's earpieces, "skip ordered the same thing, made them a doubles. Hal's going to have to give her a real one just in case he switches on the hand-off. Keep 'em peeled, people."

"She's going to have to drink it. And she's a lightweight."

We watched Hal's camera as he mixed the drinks then handed them across the bar. Ranger was right, Butch grabbed both then handed Steph the one that had been in front of him. They moved over to a tall table, both taking sips of their drinks.

"That's an okay whiskey," Steph said, warning us that her drink was real in case we'd missed it, "not like that rotgut so many of the bars try to pass off these days."

"Well, drink up Sweetie, there's more where that comes from," exclaimed Buster before raising his glass to toast her with. We could just barely see them on the corner of one of the video screens. Stephanie was clearly drinking her drink as slowly as she felt she could without raising suspicions that she wasn't a "good time" girl.

About two thirds of the way through, she gave a jolt and spilled the rest of her drink on the floor. I could just make out a flash of red hair and hear Natasha giggle and say, "oops, sorry about that," before stumbling off to the dance floor dragging Clint, who was making a show of offering to replace Stephanie's drink, with her.

She waved off both Clint's and Buster's offers of a fresh drink and instead pulled Buster onto the dance floor.

When they got onto the dance floor, we couldn't see her anymore, just listen to the wire and continue to scan the people going in and out. They danced for quite a while. I think Stephanie was trying to wait out the whiskey so she'd be a bit more clear headed. Suddenly, she exclaimed, "Shit!" and we went on alert. When Buster asked her what was the matter, she said, "oh, I just thought I saw someone I knew."

She responded to presumably Buster's question of who, with "just someone else I had fun with recently. I think his name was Alec or something like that. Weirdly into baseball, kept talking about different kinds of baseball bats the next morning. Mind if we step outside for a few minutes and hopefully he'll move on elsewhere?"

Buster sounded like he agreed and I heard Ranger say, "good girl."

Then we heard, "Actually, the back door is probably a safer bet, he probably won't come this way. Nobody does."

Ranger calmly ordered the extra team around to the back of the bar. I could see him pull up information on one of the computers and confirm that Alec was, indeed out on bail again already. A minute later the mic went out and Ranger yelled at Hector in Spanish while slamming open the van door. I grabbed my shield and followed him. Suddenly our phones started emitting an alarm and I knew what it was without looking. I took off running. Seconds later I heard Jarvis in my earpiece explaining that nobody in the club had found her yet.

I got to the back door and found it was jammed and that team couldn't get in. I dashed over and ripped the door off its hinges. I paused as soon as I entered to let my eyes adjust and listen. I heard a muffled thump and a curse and swung around to what looked like the manager's office. The doorknob was locked, so I reached over and ripped that door of the hinges too. Standing inside was Stephanie with one arm covering her eyes and mouth and the other holding her can of pepper spray by her side. One guy was on the ground unconscious and a second was in the corner, writhing around gagging.

I gently grabbed her and pulled her to me and out of the room as the secondary team rushed in and secured the men. I set her down and carefully guided her outside. I looked her over, "are you okay?"

At this point we had a crowd around us including Tony in his armor, holding Pepper close and Thor with his hammer.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Alec saw me as we were trying to leave and followed us. We'd almost made it out the back when he grabbed me and dragged me into the office. Buster followed and started trying to pull him away from me until he heard Alec call me a 'that bounty hunter bitch'. At that point he decked Alec, knocking him out. Then Buster locked the door and started yelling at me asking me who else was here. I grabbed my pepper spray, hoping the team was going to arrive soon and I was going to find a different way out because that room was so small. But when no one was in the room and he came at me, I just covered my face and sprayed. That's when you came in."

Bobby walked up to her and Stephanie just shook her head, "honestly, I'm fine. Alec didn't even grab me as hard as Joe did earlier, I don't think it will bruise. And Buster never got around to laying a hand on me."

Bobby handed her a bottle of water and some wipes so that she could make sure she didn't have any pepper spray left on her. Then he backed off and Stephanie turned to Ranger, "why'd it take so long for backup to get there and how was Steve the first one there when you and he were probably the furthest away except for Ram?"

"Well, Babe, turns out Super Soldiers are crazy fast and strong," he replied with a straight face.

Junior piped in with, "we got to the back door and it was jammed. We were telling Tank and Thor to get to it and try to open it from the other end so we could help in the search when the Captain there ran up out of nowhere and just ripped the door off the hinge. He did the same thing to the office door to get to you."

Stephanie looked over at the back door lying on the ground and nodded, "nice."

Tony piped in with, "It's not his first. Difference is that this time the club owner will probably want to keep it as a prize. Last time Fury was pissed because it was the Helicarrier and, well, it exposed some secrets and caused us all to fight."

Stephanie nodded, "sounds like a good story for another time. If it's not classified. Alright, let's get back to Rangeman so I can fill out my report and we can all leave."

Ranger shook his head and said, "morning's soon enough." Lester handed me an extra set of keys and Steph reached over, grabbed my hand and pulled me to where the SUVs were. Feeling her holding my hand, made me forget about the whole debacle and smile as I followed.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: **The characters and things you recognize in this story don't belong to me. They belong to Marvel and Janet Evanovich. I'm pretty sure you'll recognize which is which. Mistakes belong to me.

* * *

Chapter 5

_**Joe's POV**_

That bitch had really gone and done it this time. After that scene _she_ caused at the police station yesterday, I'd had to sit in my captain's office and listen as he yelled at me. I knew I deserved it for not being able to keep Stephanie in line, but it still irked me to no end.

I didn't know what she was playing at. It was bad enough when she'd "broken up" with me, again, but I knew it was only a matter of time before she'd come crawling back like she always did. This time, she was pushing the boundaries even more, not just insisting on working for Manoso, but now hanging around with these Avengers. What was going through her head? I'm sure they were just doing this for the fun of watching her screw up and getting to laugh at her at the end of every night.

I sighed as I heard a car pull up outside, surprised when I noticed it was my captain. I looked around and kind of shoved the beer cans out of the way. My mother and grandmother would clean those up while I was gone. Goodness knows it was Stephanie's place to do that, but we all knew she wouldn't take care of it. Yet. I had thought at first that he was joking when he said I was going to have to go out of state to an alcohol treatment program and anger management classes. Rehab. I'd just laughed in his face. Of course, when it turned out that he was serious, I'd stopped laughing.

This was all Cupcake's fault. I didn't have alcohol or anger problems, she had being an idiot problems. She was lucky I was still willing to marry her. At least Morelli genes are so strong that I wouldn't have to worry about our kids taking after her. I opened the door and walked out to my captain's car. Guess he was going to personally see me off for my treatment.

I'd sit through the stupid program and classes. They wouldn't be able to make me change because there was nothing wrong with me, but maybe I'd learn something that I could use to help Stephanie improve herself. And by the time I get back, these "Avengers" would have moved on and Rangeman will have kicked Stephanie to the curb just like Ranger did. She'll be waiting for me and after she's sufficiently proven that she learned from her mistakes, we'll be able to get married and move on with our lives.

_**Steph's POV**_

I woke up the next morning to the smell of coffee, I smiled and opened my eyes. In front of me was a piece of paper with a single red rose on it. I read the note from Steve and smiled. He'd let me know that he hadn't been able to sleep, so he'd gone for a run and then to the gym. He'd meet us at the office when we got in. On my bedside table was another note, this time with a traveler's mug of coffee and a muffin. Apparently he'd heard Tony raving about how good this mug was at keeping coffee hot, so he'd gotten one somewhere in the very early hours of the morning with the hopes that my coffee would still be hot when I woke up.

I greedily grabbed it up and tested. Yep, still hot. I went about my morning routine, happily sipping coffee throughout, then walked out of my bedroom into the sitting area. Everyone looked up, surprised to see me smiling.

Tony blurted out, "wait a minute, why are you so happy this morning, I know for a fact that Cap isn't here and wouldn't have put that smile on your face last night."

"Nope," I agreed, "but he did leave me coffee before he left and it is still hot, so I've already had some. He also left me this." I said, bringing the rose up to my face to smell before wandering into the kitchen area and finding a glass to put the rose in. I refilled my coffee and walked back past the baffled group to put the rose on my bedside table.

I walked back out with my muffin and said, "okay, who is going in today, and are you ready?"

Natasha, Clint, and Thor raised their hands. Pepper said, "we're going to be checking in on the house to make sure it is all set. We'll catch up with you all later today. Stay safe!"

I nodded my agreement and led the group down to the SUV. We got to Rangeman and headed directly to the gym. As soon as walked in, my step and my smile faltered. A bunch of the guys were standing around openly staring. Steve was clearly in his own world, and I think it was one made of nightmares.

I noticed some sand on the ground and a line of three broken punching bags against a wall. There were more new bags off to the side waiting for their turn. As we watched, Steve's controlled punching became harsher and more frantic. Then bam, he broke the bag and it went flying toward the opposite wall. Without noticing any of the rest of us, he went over, moved it with the other broken bags then dragged up a fresh one and started punching it again.

Ranger stepped up next to me and I asked, "how long?"

"Couple of hours," came his reply. "Bobby offered a sedative, but we didn't think we could get it in him or that it would work anyway."

"Can you clear the gym until further notice? And turn off the cameras? Natasha, Clint, and Thor will stay outside in case there's a problem, but I'm sure I'll be fine."

Ranger looked me in the eyes then nodded his head.

Natasha stepped up to me, eyes on Cap, "you sure about this? He'll come out of it on his own eventually anyway."

"I'm sure."

I waited until everyone had cleared out then I stared at him for a minute. Mostly out of concern, but a teeny bit because he'd taken his shirt off and he was definitely built. I stopped myself before I went down that train of thought too far and I tried to decide how I wanted to approach this.

Deciding that first and foremost was to avoid startling him as much as possible, I walked around him, careful to stay well away from him, until I was back where I'd be in his field of vision but was still outside of the range where I thought the punching bag or its chain would hit me if he broke another one. I pulled a chair over and sat, staring at him. I said his name softly a few times then a little more firmly.

Then I just started talking to him, telling him fun stories. I told him about the time that I'd been convinced I could fly as a kid and jumped off my parents' garage roof. I told him about the many adventures Mary Lou and I had growing up and how I'd snuck out of my parents' house at night as a teen. I told him about some of the funnier mishaps Lula and I had over the past few years. Like trying to barbecue and catching a tree on fire. And then later trying to barbecue and catching an awning on fire.

Finally I started talking about when I first met him a day and a half ago. How I'd known instantly I could trust him and how I'd felt a tingle when our arms brushed. I told him about how shocked I was that he and his teammates had accepted me into their lives so quickly and how they seemed to treat me as a friend. I told him what it did to my heart every time he looked at me and smiled. I talked about how much it meant to me that he had hardly seen me do much of my job, and things hadn't gone perfectly, but he'd still supported and encouraged me.

I noticed that his punches seemed to be slowing down and to be lessening in intensity. So I continued on that thread and told him that even when I was locked in that room with a pissed off skip last night, I knew I could take care of myself but just in case, he'd be there before anything bad happened to me. Seeing him tense a little more at that again, I switched back and started creeping closer as I told him how great that one, tiny kiss had felt and how excited I was to know how much more there was to come. I told him about how I couldn't wait to get to know him more and I could just tell that he was going to be a big part of my life from now on.

Finally I told him how happy it made me to hold his hand and know that he was okay with letting everyone see it. And how happy I felt the instant our hands touched each other and I felt his warmth radiating into me. Lastly I told him how happy I'd been when I woke up because I could just tell he'd been nearby. And about how beautiful the rose was and how the coffee was still warm and it had made me instantly cheerful with the first sip instead of taking a whole cup just because I knew he'd gotten it for me and went to such great lengths to do so.

His hands had finally stilled on the punching bag, so I reached out and touched them. Even with the tape, I still felt that warmth spread through me. He looked at me as he started pulling off the tape and I could see the cold nightmares slowly leave his gaze. When he got all the tape off, he reached out and stroked my cheek. Then his hands ran down my arms to my mine, and joined them together with his.

He used our joined hands to pull me closer and dropped his head down as I stretched up to him and he gave me a real kiss. I was expecting an inferno of excess testosterone and for him to be a little rough even. I was surprised, and felt that tiny grip that I still had on my heart loosen, when instead he was exceedingly gentle. His hands let go of mine so he could wrap his arms carefully around me. My hands slid up his bare chest into his hair and then down behind his neck to clasp together. He tenderly lifted me up so he could stand full height as though I didn't weigh anything, and I secured myself a little more by wrapping my legs around his waist.

The kiss just seemed to go on. It tender and romantic somehow making me feel desired and loved without being overtly sexual. Though that was quite obviously brewing under the surface. He could have easily turned the kiss into that kind of passion and I would have been right there with him, but by refraining, he succeeded in making me feel treasured. I felt a couple of happy tears fall down my cheeks as I realized that this embrace really did feel like coming home. He broke off the kiss and just rested his head on my shoulder and neck, breathing in my scent.

"Thank you," he whispered hoarsely, and I just combed my fingers through his hair, soothing him as he continued to hold me. Eventually he took a few steps until we were at a wall, rearranged his grip on me, and sat on the floor, me in his lap, with his back against the wall.

I felt his heart rate slow down and his breathing come back to normal. We sat there for probably an hour, just soaking in each other's presence. He leaned his head back against the wall and said, "It's too early to say it, so I'm not going to. I'm just going to say that I think some day soon, I'm going to love you. I don't know what I did to deserve you, but I'm so glad you came into my life."

Guy's a superhero, he's saved thousands of people. Well, actually, he saved the world, so I guess he saved all the people. Or maybe just a sixth of them if he had to share credit with the rest of The Avengers. And he _doesn't know what he did to deserve me_. Yeah right, I'm the one who doesn't deserve him.

Steve chuckled and pulled me closer into him. Hmm, I guess I didn't keep that inside. So I just looked up at him and said, "I _know_ that one of these days, I'm going to love you." He leaned down and gave me another tender kiss. Finally he looked around at the gym and said, "Well, looks like I scared everyone off and made a big mess. I'll start cleaning this up, and you go tell everyone it is safe to come back." He stood up with me in his arms then gently set me down on the feet. He gave me one more kiss before pushing me softly away to do as he'd asked.

I turned around halfway to the door and stopped and checked him out one more time. Appreciating the view all the more now that I wasn't so worried about him. He noticed me checking him out and grinned before walking over to his discarded shirt and pulling it on. "Spoilsport!" I shouted.

When I opened the door to the hallway, I was surprised to see not just Thor, Clint, and Natasha there, but Bruce, Tony, and Pepper as well. They'd found some chairs and pulled them into the hall, clearly settled in for the long-haul. As soon as I opened the door, they jumped up, rushing forward and asking me if I was okay and what happened. I threw my hands up, palms facing out and said, "Relax! Everything is fine! Go in and see for yourselves if you'd like. I'm just going to run up and let the guys know they can use the gym again."

I ran up the stairs, peeked my head out the door and called out, "all clear guys, thanks!" Then I turned around and sped back down the stairs. When I got back, Tony, Pepper, and Bruce were standing in the hallway. Bruce walked up to me with a big smile on his face and said, "thanks for taking care of him." Pepper gave me a quick hug.

I was the most surprised when Tony looked me in the eye, all seriousness, and said, "Thank you." Then he put his customary smirk back on and said, "Thanks to Pep, the house is done. We're headed up to ask your boss if you can have the afternoon off. We've already moved everything over from the hotel. We picked up a couple of extra things as well. Figured, since we're at the beach, you might want to introduce the Capsicle to bikinis. Bet he has a heart attack!"

Hmmm, if he was going to be in swim trunks while shirtless and possibly wet from the ocean, it'd probably be a toss-up which of us had a heart attack first.

I just covered my face and blushed profusely when I heard Tony laugh and realized I'd said that out loud. Without looking at them I walked toward the gym doors, waving good bye behind my head.

I stopped by my locker and traded my boots in for running shoes and my cargoes in for yoga pants before stripping my outer uniform shirt off again, leaving myself in the sports bra under a cami. This was my more standard workout gear than yesterday when I hadn't taken the time to stop before beating Lester into the mats. Normally I didn't wear the cami and just went with the sports bra, but I didn't think Steve was ready for that, so I would leave it on today.

I walked into the gym and noticed that Steve was done cleaning up and was lifting some free weights off to the side. His gaze tracked me as I walked over to the stereo, flipped on some Metallica, and then went over to the treadmill and started to run. I wasn't planning to go very far today because I hate running, but I wanted a little time to think, so this was the easiest way to accomplish it.

As my feet pounded on the treadmill, I let my thoughts wander over the morning. Honestly, I knew things were moving fast with Steve, especially considering my previous commitment phobia, but there was just _something_ pulling me to him. I had said way more to him this morning trying to get him to snap out of his nightmares than I had intended, especially so early in our relationship. And after this morning's kiss and "some day soon I'm going to love you", I couldn't call it anything other than a relationship.

What was so different this time? Why didn't that scare me in the least? I guess it kept going back to that surprising, inexplicable connection. And really, I knew I could trust him with everything, including my heart. There was still a chance, as there always was, that this wasn't going to work out, but I felt confident it would. So I was going to go all in and see what happened. We'd both laid our cards on the table and now it was time to see if we could find a way to make sure that we both won.

I was startled and almost tripped when I heard Clint's voice talk from next to me. "If you're thinking about running, I think I speak for all of us when I say that I'm glad you're just running in place rather than away."

I looked up into the mirror and realized he'd been watching me, probably this whole time. I looked around the mirror and saw that Natasha, Thor, Steve, and the Merry Men who'd been brave enough to come back into the gym so far were as well. Rats, my poker face was crap. I'm pretty sure that's how all the Rangemen ESPed me all the time. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now.

I locked eyes with Steve in the mirror as I responded to Clint, "I'm not running. Well, I mean, obviously I literally am right now, but I was just thinking some things through. I'm not running."

I moved my gaze back over to Clint and he nodded. "You know, the first time I saw Tasha I had orders to kill her. She was working for the KGB. But as soon as I saw her I knew I was going to make a different call. We were two spies on opposite sides, and everyone thought I was crazy. But I just knew."

I was surprised and touched that he would tell me something so incredibly personal. And I was honored. I knew exactly what that was- a vote of support. I swallowed past the emotion and whispered, "thanks."

_**Ranger's POV**_

After getting back upstairs to my office, I watched the screens on the wall of my office as Stephanie cautiously moved around Steve and into his peripheral line of sight. Smart. Then I followed her wishes and cut the camera feed for the gym. I pulled up the hallway outside the gym as I started settling in on the paperwork on my desk. I felt sure this would take a while. As I worked I saw the other Avengers arrive, along with Ms. Potts, and set up a vigil of sorts outside the gym doors. They were talking amongst themselves occasionally and otherwise sitting in contemplative silence.

Having watched their interactions with Stephanie thus far, I was pretty sure that they were there, sitting in that hallway, instead of doing whatever else they probably could and should be doing, just as much for her as for Steve. Stephanie just had that way about her that drew people to her. I think a large part of it was the way that she just instantly accepted everyone around her without judgement. It was what made her so special to my men and me, even some of the skips she'd brought in and helped over the years.

I loved her, and I always would. But I'd been completely honest when I told her that I couldn't give her more than sex. And for as long as she'd offered it, I would have continued to take it. Even though I knew it hurt her a little bit every time I slept with her and pushed her away But she loved me anyway, knowing I knew that. Because when she loved people, she was fiercely loyal to them and she loved everything about them- even the darkest places of their hearts. And I was sure she was showing that side of herself to the Captain right now.

I was shocked when, maybe a little over an hour after I'd shut off the gym cameras, the door from the gym into the hallway opened and out popped Steph. She quickly calmed down the concerned group in the hallway and gestured them inside. Then she ran up the stairs and I heard her voice through my open door call out an all clear to the guys. My eyes followed her back down the stairs where she exchanged words with a relieved looking Bruce, Pepper, and Tony before making her way into the gym.

She was in the locker room when Tank, Bobby and Lester walked in and shut my office door behind themselves. They sat down and turned to watch the monitors with me as Steph climbed on the treadmill and started running. She was oblivious as Clint joined her and he, as well as everyone else in the room, studied every thought that blatantly ran across her face.

My brothers in arms turned to me, and it was Lester who spoke up, "you okay, man."

I looked over at them and smiled a genuine smile. "Yes, I'm happy, actually. This is what she needs and what I've always wanted for her."

They looked as though they didn't quite believe me, and I could understand their point of view. There had always been powerful chemistry between Stephanie and I, and we were close. In fact, in some ways I was probably closer to her than I was to these men. She had a way of bringing out parts of me that without even realizing she was doing so. But, other than the sexual chemistry, it really was just a deep friendship. It was one I would always treasure, but I felt sure that our history was, even now, still standing in the way of everything our friendship could be.

And it was true that I had always been territorial over Steph as far as my men were concerned. But that was because I knew that they were like me. Stephanie had healed us all, enough to keep us alive. But even with her, none of us would be whole. And we couldn't give back to her nearly as much as we would take. I would always need her in my life, and I knew that was true of my men as well, especially the ones in this room. And Hector- he was her most drastic save to date.

As much as I would always need her, I knew that this was what was right for her. The first time I'd seen her with Steve, standing between him and me as though to protect him, I had a feeling about them. And as I watched them interact a few more times, the smiles they exchanged, and the comfort that they clearly drew from each other, I knew they belonged together. And I was being completely honest when I said that I was happy they found each other. They would keep each other whole, ground each other, and be stronger as a unit. Stephanie needed that. I didn't know him well yet, but I think Steve needed that. And truth be told, we all needed that for her.

I explained this all to the men in the room as we watched the interactions in the gym. She and Clint had clearly bonded a little more. She'd exchanged some words with Thor off to the side and been embraced in a huge- truthfully painful looking- brotherly hug. And now she and Natasha were on the mats sparring and chatting at the same time. And Steve watched all of this from the sidelines as he lifted some weights, looking absolutely at peace and content.

With a smile on my face, I turned off the screen and stood. "You know," I said, "we have a few men that we've talked about wanting to offer more responsibility and roles, but nowhere to put them. I was thinking I'd talk to a few of them who I think would be receptive to the idea, including two medics. Float the idea of them getting leadership roles, but moving around whenever we want them to. Between here and the Washington D.C. and Manhattan satellite offices that we're going to build into additional regional headquarters."

Bobby scratched his chin and said, "that way we can move to whichever of those cities we want, whenever we want."

I nodded in agreement, "keep our eyes on the most important member of our family. And offer her the flexibility to work wherever she wants as much or as little as she wants."

"We're always turning down business from those cities anyway because our offices aren't big enough. What about the rest of the guys though?" asked Lester.

"I'll work with the lawyers on some proposed contract wording and circulate it amongst you all for approval. I'm thinking based on seniority, we offer them the choice to stay where they are or join a rotational program that moves them between those three cities on a regular basis. That way they'll always get some overlap," added Tank.

We all nodded our agreement. "I'm going to go talk to Hector. He's going to be lead technology advisor to the core team. We'll come up with one for the other two management teams as well. He'll rotate with us, if he wants. His apartment, as well as ours, will be duplicated in the other cities and they'll shift ownership with whoever is onsite at any time."

We shared satisfied smiles. Sure, it was going to be a lot of work, but Stephanie was worth every bit of it. And I felt sure this would wind up being wildly profitable for Rangeman, even if a bit unconventional.

They all stood up, walking toward the door to go about their new tasks when there was a knock on the door. They stopped and I called for whoever was outside to enter. I was pleasantly surprised to see Tony Stark, and I noticed Pepper and Bruce in the outer office chatting with some of the men on duty.

I gestured him in and everyone sat back down as Tony grabbed a seat.

"The house is ready for us to move in, and I've worked with your man, Hector, to integrate a top of the line Rangeman system with Jarvis. He wouldn't tell me how much I owed, so I wanted to ask you about that."

I just waved him off, "we don't charge for anything involving Stephanie's protection. Keep in mind that can extend to anywhere else she might end up."

He looked at me curiously, "where else do you have offices?"

"We have some small dispatch type centers in some cities along the east coast, but our other major offices are in Miami and Boston. We just decided, however, to expand into New York and D.C. as quickly as possible. We'd be interested in any recommendations you could make for buildings similar to this in those places. We're looking to give ourselves the ability to move about between those cities for extended periods of time if, for some reason, we have a desire to do so."

At that, Tony shot me what was the first genuine smile I'd earned from him so far. "I'll let you know what I come up with. Pepper and I were just discussing bringing a branch of Stark Industries to Trenton, in fact. So if you have any leads with that, I'd be similarly appreciative. Oh, and I also hear Malibu is a nice city. Just so you know. Though perhaps more of a vacation one. Let me know when you set up new offices and I'll make sure to send my referrals in the field to you from now on." I nodded my thanks and he added, "May even see about hiring you to consult on some upgrades for Avengers Tower once you make it to Manhattan. You know, depending on how things go."

"For the record, I hope they go very well. And I think they will," I responded.

"Interesting. Alright, well I should get going. I did want to ask if I could convince you give Stephanie the afternoon off. That way we can all settle in to the house."

I nodded my agreement.

"Alright, well, you know where it is. You are all welcome any time."

_**Steve's POV**_

I watched as Natasha worked with Stephanie. We'd been telling the truth earlier when we said that Stephanie had a pretty good base, but there was a lot that Natasha could teach her. For instance, the men here had shown her a lot of standard defence moves and how to do things like use attackers' weight against them, recognizing that Stephanie was almost always going to be physically smaller than her attackers. Nat, on the other hand, being probably the best female hand-to-hand combatant in the world and similar in size, could more easily show her how to combine her own body weight with theirs to become an even more effective weapon.

After a while, more of the men showed up, and I noticed Natasha's eyes light up followed by one of her trademark smirks when Lester walked in. Lester was an idiot if he hadn't apologized to Natasha over the picture fiasco as well. And by the look in her eyes, I was guessing he hadn't.

Natasha began demonstrating one of her trademark moves on Lester, putting more into it and throwing him down time and time again just a little harder than necessary. Then she called Steph over and walked her through the same move. The look on Stephanie's face when she finally succeeded was one of shock, followed almost immediately by joy. I felt my own face light up in a smile and realized that I think I'd smiled and laughed more in the past day and a half than I had in the entire year before. Steph looked over at me and her smile grew, "did you see? I did it!"

I had just nodded when I heard Ranger, who had just walked in, ask "did what, Babe?" Steph looked over at Natasha who gave her a quick nod as Ranger started walking toward the ring. I could see mischief in her eyes as Steph hopped out of the ring and ran full tilt at Ranger. He clearly had no clue what was coming because he kept moving forward, only faltering slightly when she kept coming at him. Before he knew what happened Stephanie launched herself at him, locking her thighs around his neck and twisting her body, throwing a shocked Ranger down onto the floor. She landed on the balls of both feet over him and instantly jumped well out of his reach.

A stunned silence filled the gym as though everyone was trying to process what they had just seen happen. Ranger just laid on his back for a second then looked over at Natasha and said, "nice work." He looked at Steph and said, "proud of you, Babe" before all of the Rangemen started laughing. I mean full on laughing, several of them, including Tank, doubled over. I looked over at Thor and Clint and saw their lips twitching.

"Figures she'd teach Steph that move first," Clint said, "it's her favorite and certainly a show stopper. Probably also a good confidence booster."

I nodded in agreement, watching as Ranger slowly picked himself off the floor saying, "despite that, I'm still going to do what I came down here to do and tell you to take the day off. I hear you have a house to settle into with your new roommates. Next time though, Steph, can you please try out your new moves somewhere that isn't concrete."

Stephanie's smile slipped just a hair at that and she asked, "oh no, did I hurt you?"

Natasha, Clint, Thor, and I walked up to her as Ranger said, "I'll be fine. I'm just glad Black Widow over there hasn't taught you whatever it is she follows that move up with yet." We all nodded in agreement as he added, "or given you any of her bites to play with."

"What's a bite, Nat?" Stephanie asked Natasha. I knew what was coming but before I could stop her, Natasha turned quick as a flash, drawing a bite from I don't know where, and threw it at Lester who instantly went down.

There was silence again as Natasha started striding out of the gym. She called over her shoulder to no one in particular, "when he wakes up, tell him not to make me regret forming an alliance with him again!"

I grabbed Steph by the hand and pulled her out of the gym too, shoving her into the locker room down the hallway and saying, "ten minutes!"

We were all standing in the hallway, still waiting for her 15 minutes later when Lester walked up and muttered an apology to Natasha.

"Don't worry, I know you won't do it again. And thanks for your help at training today."

Lester smiled and nodded before walking back. I was wearing jeans, a white shirt and a brown leather jacket, so I was surprised when Ranger walked up to me and handed me another leather jacket, this one in black. Then I realized it was much too small for me and must be meant for Stephanie.

He handed me a set of keys and said, "I picked something up that I thought you might appreciate. Heard you had one in DC before things went south that last time, and I thought you might like a replacement. Pink slip is for you and it's in Steph's jacket. Call it a thanks for saving her gift if you must. It's a little for her too, she loves a good bike. Plus, they're hard to hide a bomb on."

Finally, he handed me a smaller version of the harness I had my shield attached to my back with. He looked me in the eye and said, "there's a place on the side of the bike that should work too if you'd rather." Then he was gone.

I looked over at the others in surprise. "What just happened?"

Tony was walking down the hall toward us, past a group of Rangemen who were watching the exchange with interest. "He told me earlier he's pulling for the two of you. Hopes you'll make it work. He thinks you're good for each other. If you ask me, that was him making a statement to all the men that he's accepted you and your relationship with Steph. Approves of it. Think of it almost like getting permission from a girl's dad to go steady, if you must."

Before I could respond, Stephanie came walking out. She was dressed in jeans and a light blue shirt. Her hair was down, she had sunglasses on, and her makeup was light. Clearly she was ready for a day of relaxation, rather than a day at the office. She smiled at me, then over at everyone else. she looked in my hands and said, "what's all that?"

"Your ex boyfriend gave him a present," Tony shouted with glee.

A clearly baffled Stephanie asked, "Joe was here? And they let him in?"

"Not Joe," I said, "Ranger."

"He wasn't ever _really_ my boyfriend, but okay. Hate to break it to you though, but that doesn't look like your size."

"This isn't the present. At least not for me. This is for you." I handed her the jacket and she looked it over with interest before shrugging it on. It looked like it was custom made in her size, and I started to wonder how worried I should be about the fact that Ranger could pick out clothing that fit Stephanie so perfectly when I heard her murmur, "Ella is a goddess." That made me feel better.

I dangled the keys in front of her face, "this is for me, apparently."

She grabbed them, looked at them and smiled. "Harley, nice. We've all seen the pictures, he knows your style, probably figures you're more comfortable driving this than one of the fancy half-spaceship cars he usually prefers."

"He'd be right about that."

She reached in her pocket and pulled out the papers. She looked them over. One set had a note on it that said "Steve" and she handed that to me as I noticed the other said, "Steph- your eyes only."

I unfolded my papers and saw that they were the title and paid registration for the bike.

Steph opened hers and laughed before tearing it up into little pieces and throwing it away.

"What was that?" Natasha asked, making me grateful because I didn't have to ask.

"I used to ask him where he got all the vehicles that I invariably blew up. In the beginning I was worried that they were acquired through... less than legal means. That was the receipt for the bike. It said, 'don't worry, it's not hot.' He wanted to make sure I didn't think he'd given Steve illegal property."

The thought hadn't even crossed my mind, but now that it had, I was glad to know that wasn't the case.

I reached over and closed up her jacket and said, "so, wanna go for a ride?"

Tony and Lester, who had come back and joined the group, snorted out laughs. My eyes widened and I blushed before stammering, "on the bike! I didn't mean…"

Stephanie just glared at them both then looked at me and said, "always."

"Okay, you're going to need to do me a favor though," I said.

"Anything," she responded without a split second of hesitation. It reassured me that I was making the right choice.

The others watched on curiously, as did the crowd that was slowly gathering the longer we stood in the hallway. I took a deep breath and slid her arms through the shoulder straps of the harness, adjusting them to the correct length. Then I looked her in the eye and simply said, "hold this for me?" as I reached behind my back, grabbed my shield, and secured it onto her back. I tested the quick release to make sure it was working, then strapped it back on.

Her eyes widened, but she nodded her head and didn't even stagger at it's weight. Then she leaned up and kissed me on the cheek. If there weren't dozens of people watching us, I would have given her a real kiss because she looked sexy as hell right now. Instead, I grabbed her hand and led her down the hallway and to the stairs.

The bike was sitting right in front of the staircase exit when we walked out, with two helmets sitting on the seats. I grinned and walked a circle around it, inspecting it closely. It was exactly what I would have picked out for myself. Seemed like the slightly newer model of my last bike. I looked at Steph and said, "HYDRA took my last one during the whole SHIELD takeover, Captain America is a fugitive thing. I wasn't able to locate it after I got out of the hospital." She nodded in understanding.

I picked up my helmet and strapped it on. Then I climbed on, picked up her helmet, and motioned her over. She stopped next to me and I reached up and carefully placed her helmet on, double checking that it was properly shut. Then she climbed on behind me and snuggled in close. I tested one more time that I could grab the shield from her back quickly if I needed it, then I turned around and secured it back onto her. When I turned the key and felt the bike rumble to life, Steph groaned behind me, and I reached down and squeezed her thigh firmly.

The two SUVs with the others in them pulled up. Tony was driving the lead car and rolled his window down. He kept his eyes ahead and said, "I hate to ruin this moment, but can we head out now?"

I pulled out my aviators, putting them on and revving the engine in affirmation. From behind me, Steph called out, "take the scenic route!" That brought a smile to Tony's face and he rolled up his window. He pulled forward and I slid between the two SUVs as we exited the garage.

There was only minor traffic getting out of Trenton, so the drive to the beach took just under an hour. Once we'd made it out of the city and onto the highway, I pulled into the next lane and sped up to get in front of Tony's SUV. I enjoyed the freedom of the bike and the feel of the wind on my face, but not nearly as much as I enjoyed the feeling of my girl pressed up behind me, her arms around my abdomen.

When I pulled up to the house and cut the engine, I could hear Stephanie's sigh of disappointment. I understood the feeling, so I just squeezed her thigh again before helping her off the bike and then climbing off myself. We pulled our helmets off, and I watched as her curls bounced free, sliding across my shield on her back. We placed the helmets on the bike and I reached over and tugged at one the curls next to her face.

I gave her a smile which she returned. The others had already exited the SUVs and walked inside the house, so I leaned down and gave her a quick kiss on the lips before putting my hand on the small of her back and guiding her inside the house. I gently removed the shield and set it on the ground by the garage door for the time being. Then I helped her out of the harness and jacket holding onto them with mine as I was unsure where to put them.

We finally looked around and saw everyone staring at us still. "Well, that's adorable," commented Bruce. Natasha and Pepper quickly added their agreement. The others didn't say anything, but they looked pleased.

"Okay!" Tony clapped his hands, "First things first, Stephanie, I'd like to formally introduce you to Jarvis."

"Hi, Jarvis" came Stephanie's response. She jumped a little then giggled with pure delight when Jarvis responded, "good afternoon, Miss Plum. I hope your ride here was enjoyable. I would like to reassure you that Tony informed of me what happened to your apartment and upgraded all of my bomb-detection software."

Stephanie nodded her head gratefully, "thank you both for that," she whispered.

"Hey, hey, none of that!" said Tony, "this is a happy house filled only with happiness! Speaking of, meet Happy. Happy Hogan is our head of security. He was here meeting with Hector and Vince earlier. He's heading back to New York pretty much now, but he wanted to meet you before he left so he'd recognize you in the future if necessary."

The two shook hands, then Happy said goodbye to everyone and headed out. I guess Tony wasn't kidding. Then Tony started giving everyone a tour of the house. It was massive with an underground shooting gallery/experiment testing area and workspace for Tony and Bruce. The main floor had a large open living area, a gym, and way more bedrooms than there was a need for.

I couldn't help but notice that Tony gave Stephanie and I rooms that were right next to each other in their own wing. Clint and Natasha were in a large apartment over the garage. Tony and Pepper were in their own wing of the house as well, and Thor and Bruce each had rooms directly off the living area. I have to admit for as outgoing as Tony was, he seemed to recognize the need for space and privacy. One of the extra rooms in our wing had been converted into an office for Stephanie, another had been made into an art studio for me, with lots of sketching supplies.

As everyone moved on to tour the different areas of the house, Stephanie and I wandered out to the back yard. I grabbed my shield on the way, just in case. On a whim, I grabbed both of our harnesses as well. There were no neighbors anywhere nearby, but there were security fences up along the sides nonetheless. A big pool took up part of the backyard, and it had plenty of lounging chairs and umbrellas around it. Off to the side was a patio/party type area with an outdoor kitchen and, of course, a full bar. The majority of the back yard was relatively untouched, offering open space that was like a blank canvas. I could think of lots of good training uses for this space. The beach was definitely the crowning glory though. The fences ran all the way along the sides and into the water a short ways. They should provide a decent amount of cover from intruders and gossipmongers alike.

Stephanie walked right out to the sand and sat down, so I walked up and joined her. I stretched my legs out in front of me and reclined back on my hands. Steph scooted a little closer and leaned the side of her head against my chest. She took a deep breath and let it out. "I love the beach. It soothes me no matter what is going on in my life."

"You know, the ocean hasn't been my favorite ever since the crashing my plane into it and sleeping for almost 70 years thing."

She startled next to me, "I'm sorry, I didn't think."

When she started to get up, I just pulled her back into me and said, "you're changing that right now." We sat there in silence for a while longer and finally I stood up and pulled her up with me. "We can do this more later, but there's something important we need to do first." She followed me without protest as I led her to the open area of grass closer to the house.

"Okay," I explained, holding out her shoulder harness. "If you're going to be around me a lot, which I hope you are, and wearing this sometimes, like when we're out on the bike, you need to be able to at least get the shield into and out of your harness in case I can't for some reason."

She slipped the straps over her shoulders and nodded her head, both of us ignoring the others who had stepped out, presumably to find us, and decided to stay and watch. "Okay, watch a few times what I'm doing first, it is pretty straight forward." I made the motion once and she stopped me saying, "you're too tall, I can't see what you're doing."

I paused in thought and then just knelt down in the dirt to show her a few times. I stood back up and handed the shield to her. Her eyes went wide and I realized that although she'd worn it earlier, she hadn't actually handled it because I'd put it on her and taken it off. I nudged her with it playfully and said, "it won't bite."

"That is such a lie!" called out Natasha.

"Well, not literally. It's only as dangerous as the person holding it and how well they know how to use it," I clarified.

"So right this second, it is pretty fucking dangerous!" added Clint.

I turned my head and glared at them, "you are so not helping! You know she needs to learn this!"

They all nodded their heads in agreement, so this time Pepper yelled out, "you're perfectly safe from it as long as it is in Steve's hands."

"Better!" I called back. I could feel as they all started walking closer to watch more openly. I was practically expecting them to pass some popcorn around. Then I held it out to Stephanie again. Her hands were trembling a little as she reached out and took it. She grabbed it much too loosely by the top, and as soon as I let go it slipped out of her fingers and dropped to the ground.

Her eyes got really big as she covered her mouth. "I'm so so so sorry!" she gasped.

I couldn't help it, I just started laughing. Natasha took a few steps forward then reached up and smacked me upside the head. "Thanks, Nat. Steph, look at me, I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing at the idea that such a little drop could possibly hurt it. I once jumped 20 plus stories out of a building, crashed through glass at about story 18 and landed with all of my weight on that. You aren't going to hurt it if you drop it on the dirt."

"Okay."

"You're also not going to hurt it if you grasp it more firmly, which you're going to need to do." I reached back down and picked it up again, then offered it out to her. She took a deep breath and held onto it more firmly this time. When I let go, she adjusted her grip a little, but it stayed in her hand. "Okay, now lift it up, over your head, rotate it, and slide it down into the holster."

She dropped it again the first several times she tried, but she finally got it. Then she had to try getting it back out of the holster. That took a lot of fiddling and frustration on her end before she got it the first time. She got a little bit faster every time she tried though. I walked over to the group who were all still standing there watching. When it seemed like she finally had it in a relatively fluid movement, and her arm was getting tired so she wasn't going to be getting any better today, I walked back over and said, "Good job. That's enough for today. We'll practice more tomorrow." Then I gently took it back from her and smoothly affixed it to my back.

"Show off," she muttered, she thought to herself.

I just tossed my head back and laughed and pulled her into a hug. "It'll be second nature to you in no time."

* * *

**A/N:** So, how are you all feeling about things? You still enjoying the story. Yes, things are moving along rather quickly with Steve and Steph, but they are spending A LOT of time together, and I totally believe in having instant connections with people, so I'm standing by that. I'm thinking Steve and some of the Avengers will probably come up with some nicknames for Steph soon- let me know if you have any requests or suggestions!

Many heartfelt thanks to Margaret for pushing me to stretch myself a little with the additional POVs this chapter. I liked how they turned out in the end. Did you all enjoy them?


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** No more double posting, so if you followed this one instead of the actual story, don't forget to switch over! You can search for it by selecting Crossover: Janet Evanovich X Avengers. Or get there directly at the website's url slash s/10566556/1/

Hope you'll join me there!


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